US Team Handball Women's National Team

MONTREAL, QC- After eight games in the Quebec League, with a record of 5-3, the WNT needed to pocket some more wins last weekend to secure their spot in the playoffs.  Unfortunately, the WNT returned to Cortland with zero wins, but a few important lessons learned.

The three-game weekend kick-started with a game against Granby, a team the WNT had previously beaten twice. By all predictions, this should have been an easy win for the WNT, who knew what to expect from the seventh-ranked team: a short court, a small but aggressive goalie, and a fast game.  But in spite of this knowledge, the WNT came up empty handed, leaving the court with a devastating 34-19 loss.

“It was disappointing,” said Head Coach Latulipppe. “The team just didn’t show-up ready to play.  Maybe it was the 10-hour drive, but we definitely played our worst game of the season.  We were too slow and Granby executed a lot better than we did, they had speed where we lacked it.” 

Certainly the defense- which has been a strong point for the WNT in the past- struggled, allowing Granby to attack the goal over and over again.  Giving their offense 34 goals was more than the WNT had let in all season; even top-ranked Champlain was only able to score 26.  And even with the defense having a bad day, the offense was not at its best either, and the WNT’s lack of speed in attacking the goal led to a disappointing 19 goals.

But it wasn’t all negative, despite shortcomings in the team’s overall performance, Kathy Darling played one of her best games of the Quebec League season, putting in 7 goals with a shooting percentage of 70%. Erica Keppel also showed some promise in the goal, saving some nice shots in her first game of the Quebec League since injuring her PCL earlier this season.

Determined not to let Saturday evening’s performance set the tone, the WNT re-grouped on Sunday to face Laval, a team who placed second in the league last year.  Coming into the game, the energy on the WNT bench was high and the morale was positive.

 “This was one of our best games of the season,” said Latulippe.  “This was a tight game all along.  Unfortunately we had a few costly turnovers at the end, which coupled with a lack of opportunism, to give Laval the win.”  Indeed, coming off of the previous night’s loss, the WNT was hungry for a win, and even after being behind at the end of the first thirty-minutes, the WNT didn’t give up, and returned in the second half to take the lead.  “We came back to play a tough game even after a bad performance against Granby, and that was fun, but we need to do a better job and control our destiny at the end of a game,” remarked Latulippe.  “We need to stop using our inexperience as an excuse and start controlling the game at those crucial times.  This will be the key for our future success.

With only 30 minutes to rest before the third game of the weekend, the WNT was physically exhausted, but mentally ready to give it their best shot.  “We left a lot of emotion and sweat in the game against Laval, and with only a short break in between, it was a tough game to play.  We tried to hold-on to Drummondville, but this team always seems to give us trouble,” said Latulippe.  And that trouble came in the form of an early lead, leaving a gap that the WNT came close to closing, but never quite did.   With tired legs and some of the WNT top scorers falling short of their usual scoring averages, the WNT played with a lot of heart, but it was not enough to take a win.  The game ended with a final score of 21-17, and a third loss for the WNT.

Although it was certainly not the weekend they had hoped for, these three losses do not mean the end of the road for the WNT.  Their current record puts them in 4^th position, still in contention for the playoffs, but not where they want to be if they want to have the best odds for playing in the final championship.  “We will need to come back on track in March and win 4 out of the 7 games to secure our playoff position,” said Latulippe.  “It is definitely possible, but the team will need to play with a lot more consistency and score more goals.”

The next Quebec League games will be held in Cortland, in the Lusk Field House on SUNY Cortland campus.  The WNT will face-off against top-ranked Champlain, once on Saturday at 4pm, and then again on Sunday at 10am.  “These will definitely be tough games, but good ones to show our improvement,” said Head Coach Christian Latulippe.  With less than a week to go, the WNT will be working hard to turn things around, and the home court advantage certainly won’t hurt.  A few key wins over the next several weeks will hopefully find the WNT meeting their goal of making the Quebec League playoffs in April.