Volleyball Star Earns Sports Honours

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Thanks to her sterling performance on the volleyball court, Ms Bontle Finger, an honours student in Hydrology, has won a Sports Scholarship from UKZN.

Finger has played volleyball for 15 years - starting as a seven-year-old after watching other learners being coached. She also played cricket and took part in athletics.

Sport has been the greatest contributor to Finger’s personal development, teaching her the importance of mental strength alongside physical training.

“Every sport I have participated in, including volleyball, has proved that the game is 20% physical fitness and 80% mental fitness. No matter how good you look on the court, if you cannot rise above the pressure, then you must go back to the drawing board,” said Finger.

Her participation in volleyball has won her several accolades, including being named the 2025 University Sports South Africa (USSA) Indoor Volleyball Women Champion, being a member of the 2025/26 South African team, receiving a bronze medal from the Confederation of University and College Sports Associations in 2024, a bronze medal in the 2024 Aqua Darshan Elite Cup, and competing in the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball in 2023 for Zone Six, involving several southern African countries.

Finger joined UKZN from the Central University of Technology, where she studied a BSc in Hydrology and Water Resources Management, learning to love her studies in her second year. She chose to study at UKZN because of its prestige and the uniqueness of its postgraduate programme that focuses exclusively on Hydrology.

Receiving a scholarship has been an honour for Finger, who said it enabled her to further her studies and major in an interesting and ever-evolving subject. She plans to continue to master’s and PhD studies in Hydrology and Water Resources Management.

Maintaining a balance between her academic and sporting commitments has been assisted by friends, who helped her find community in a local church and a gym, and who invited her to get involved in basketball again.

Finger thanked the Sports Scholarship Department for their financial support which has helped her progress in her studies and thanked those who have provided her emotional support in her sport and given her perspective and insight in applying herself.

“I really appreciate the positive feedback and the quiet strength I have received from everyone who has listened to me yap,” said Finger.

Words: Christine Cuénod

Photograph: Nkosikhona Gcabashe and supplied