US Team Handball Women's National Team

by: Jennifer Farrell

CORTLAND, NY- March 11-12 was an exciting weekend in sports for Central New York. While Syracuse made national headlines for their unexpected wins in the Big East, the WNT (5-6) worked their own magic in Cortland to steal a phenomenal 17-12 victory against first-ranked Champlain (13-1).

Coming into the weekend, the WNT was the clear underdog. Despite their progress in recent months, and a positive weekend of games at the West Point Tournament, the WNT was facing a team that has dominated North American handball for the last two decades. In addition to holding 12 Canadian National Championship titles, Champlain boasts a long genealogy of current and former Canadian National Team players, many of whom have been playing together since childhood. In the past, this depth of experience has been painfully obvious to the WNT, who faced the Quebec League champions six times over the last two years, losing each time by more than 10 points. Just going on history alone, the WNT knew they had their work cut out for them.

But this weekend opened a fresh chapter in the story of the WNT. They weren’t going to let their history dictate their future, and when the team took the court Saturday morning, a new era was born.

The first game got off to an explosive start, with the WNT kicking things off with their new, aggressive 3-2-1 defense. Inspired by several amazing saves by veteran goalkeeper Tabrekia Almon, USA was able to keep up with Champlain to finish the first half 8-8.

“In the past, we were always able to hold good teams for about 30 minutes, as we did at the Pan American Championships last May,” said Head Coach Christian Latulippe. “However, for whatever reason we have a hard time keeping up with their experience for a full game (60 minutes). At half time, I said to the girls ‘Don’t be naïve- expect Champlain to step-up a notch or two. If we want to accomplish something today, we better go out there and work twice as hard,’ and we did. In the second half, we held Champlain to only 4 goals while our offense was able to score under high-pressure against two excellent goalies to win the game 17-12.”

Offensively, several players stepped-up to put the ball in consistently even against a solid defense and one of the toughest goalies in the Pan-American region. Maren Hendershot, a left-wing who gained her first international matches with the WNT at the 2005 Pan-American Championships put in four extraordinary goals, while back-court Kathy Darling kept-up her high-scoring run in the Quebec League with five.

Although the offense was certainly impressive, the defense was utterly spectacular. “I can definitively say that this was one of the most amazing defensive performance that I ever seen in my career,” said Latulippe, who is usually quite reserved with his praise. “We were everywhere and on every ball. This win is huge for us, not only for a potential playoff spot, but because it shows that we can play at this level. It makes us believe. We know if we respect each other in defense, if we work as a team in offense and if we keep running our fast break, we can compete at this level. Congratulations, ladies.”

With one big win behind them, the WNT showed-up at the gym on Sunday morning ready to take a second. Although they were confident that they could make it happen, they were under no illusion that Sunday would be easy. Once again, Head Coach Latulippe imparted wise words of advice to his players, not only for this game, but for the future as well. “I tried to make the players understand that if we want to qualify for the World Championships or the Olympic Games, we will have to repeat yesterday’s performance 5 or 6 days in a row, which we did.”

Determined to start things off with a bang, the WNT took the lead early in the first half, finishing after 30 minutes with an impressive three-goal lead (12-9). But, in their true-form, Champlain didn’t stand down, and instead stepped it up a notch to raise the intensity to a level beyond even what was seen during Saturday’s game. Their goalie Audrey Touchette, the starting keeper for the Canadian National Team and one of the top goalies in the Pan American region, kept them in the game, stopping a key penalty shot, as well as a few wing and fast break shots. Not to be put off by a few great goalie saves, Kathy Darling continued to shoot until the Champlain defense was forced to take her out man-to-man after she put in her sixth goal. The strategy worked, and it took two or three attacks before the WNT was able to adapt themselves.

By the time the WNT regained control of their offense, Champlain had taken a late lead of 20-18, the first lead change all game. Sadly, time was not on the WNT’s side, and as the clock ticked down, the WNT did what they could to keep Champlain from scoring, despite their forceful attacks on the goal. Once again the WNT defense did their job, and with a minute and a half to go, USA took a time-out to call their offense. “We needed to relax, and believe that we could play 5 on 5,” stated Latulippe. “After few passes around, Tomuke Ebuwei scored an impressive goal to make it 20-19. We came back with a strong defense and recovered the ball with 20 seconds, but it was not enough time to equalize.” After a hard-played game, the buzzer sounded with a final score of 20-19.

“It was a great game, a game of inches, where every goal had to be earned by incredible individual actions and sacrifice,” said Latulippe. “This was a great weekend for us. We earned their [Champlain] respect, and if we can practice the way we did this week and play with the same intensity, we should have a nice end to the season.”

With five games to go, the WNT needs to win three to end the season in the top four and secure a playoff spot. There is little doubt what the WNT is capable of, now it is up to the ladies to play consistently at this higher level. The WNT will travel this weekend (March 18-19) to Canada to play Drummondville, Montreal-Celtique, and Quebec City (Chaudiere).