US Team Handball Women's National Team

by: Jennifer Farrell

After a summer of international competition and an autumn full of intense pre-season training, the US Team Handball Women's National Team (WNT) went into their first Quebec League Games with high expectations.  

On November 11th and 12th , the WNT headed to Quebec City to play a three-game series, with a game on Saturday night against Chaudiere, followed by back-to-back games against Chaudiere and Granby on Sunday morning.

"I was pleased with our first game; we were very consistent offensively and defensively.   We took the lead early in game and kept it throughout the game," said Head Coach Christian Latulippe.   "It was a nice start considering that we were missing some veterans and it gave a chance for the new players to play some valuable minutes."

Indeed, with Edina Batar, Sarah Gascon, and Erica Keppel out injured, Tomuke Ebuwei and Jennie Choi in Sweden, and Jennifer Robertson at work, the remaining players of the WNT had to step up to fill in the gaps.  

"Team USA has jumped light years since I last saw them play in June," said right back Sarah Gascon, who is currently out rehabbing a torn ACL.   "Even though it was not a full squad and the team was playing with a lot of rookies, I still think they did an amazing job.  You can see the difference in play.  This is definitely a different USA that we are bringing into the Quebec League this year."

The game ended with the first "W" of the season for the WNT who finished the game 28-23.

"I think we ran well this weekend," said veteran left back Kathy Darling.   "Now that we've got more depth, it is part of our team's new identity to push the ball as much as possible and to try to score on fast break.  We could still stand to be faster at restarting after goals, and using our secondary break but I think it was a good start, definitely something to build on."

BOX SCORE: GAME 1 (USA vs. Chaudiere)

After beating Chaudiere on Saturday night, the WNT had an idea of what to expect when they faced the team again Sunday morning.  

"We restarted our second game the way we left the day before and played a very good first half," said Latulippe of the 16-10 halftime score.   "We were able to make them pay every mistake they made by scoring on fast break."

The early lead sealed the victory for the WNT, who finished the game 27-21.   Despite being up by six at half-time, the WNT struggled to pull ahead by a greater margin in the second half.

"I think we played well, especially considering the fact that we didn't have all of our normal starters and some players had to play out of position," said goalie Erika Bohn, who played her first games in the Quebec League over the weekend.   "One thing we can improve on, and I think we will once we have our whole team together, is to put a solid 60 minutes together and not have ups and downs.  I think wins will come more easily for us once we can be consistent with that."

Megan Ballard, who also played her first Quebec League games with the WNT, echoed this sentiment:   "I think that we always played hard and everyone tried their best even though they were put into positions that weren't necessarily their number one spot. We did well, but I think we really need to improve on playing a full 60 minutes...when we get a lead, we need to keep building on it."

BOX SCORE: GAME 2 (USA vs. Chaudiere)

With two wins behind them, the WNT prepared to step onto the court for the third time that weekend, this time facing-off against Granby, a team that has given the WNT some trouble in the past.

"I was very pleased with our start once again- we finished the 1 st half with a lead of 17-12," remarked Latulippe.   "Our offensive was working very well.   In the second half, we were not able to get away, and they slowly cut our lead.   Our wings couldn't buy a goal, and on their side they were scoring on almost every occasion they had."

It was a frustrating turn of events for the WNT, who saw their five point lead start to slowly fade away.

"Once we have a lead, we need to not only hold it, but exploit it," said center-back Sara Merkl. "We can't let the other team have any chance to catch back up.   We need to practice our technique 100 times in practice to be ready to make it happen in a game.  Every goal counts and every opportunity to score is very important.  We realized in these games that every position needs to contribute their part."

Despite seeing their lead diminish, the WNT stayed ahead until the last few minutes of the game.

"With a lead of 2 goals with 5 minutes to go, we took two bad 2-minutes for not putting the ball down after a whistle, helping them to keep their momentum," explained Latulippe.   "Still, we were 26-26 with one minute to go, and then we traveled on a 3 on 1 fast break, turning the ball over and giving the other team a chance to come back and score, winning the game 27-26."

Having held onto the lead for 59-minutes, it was a disappointing end for the players of the WNT.

" As always we need to be conscious of taking care of the ball, getting good movement and rhythm and limiting our turnovers.  Also I think this weekend showed that we need to learn to 'put teams away'," reflected Kathy Darling.   "Canada doesn't quit and we need to learn how to turn a 2 goal lead into a 4 goal lead into 6 goal lead and so on, and make it stick until the end.  We need to learn to play with more composure when we are ahead and especially when the game is tight."

Coach Latulippe agreed: "We missed too many opportunities and made too many bad mistakes, and we know what the results of these mistakes were.    Unfortunately, we learned the hard way.   Hopefully we will not regret this game too much by working hard so we can come back strong in the next Quebec League games."

BOX SCORE