US Team Handball Women's National Team

After failing to win any games in their last two international competitions, the US Team Handball Women’s National Team (WNT) showed signs of improvement during the Senior Women’s Pan American Championships (PAC). Between May 31 and June 4, eight teams competed in Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic for the chance to qualify for the World Championships, which will be played in France later this year. The highlight of the tournament for the WNT was a win in its final game over Mexico ; a result that marked a 15 goal turnaround from the last time the two teams met just one month earlier.

In the first match of the tournament, the WNT lost a heartbreaker to Canada. The final score was 29 – 31, and the team had it chances to come out on top. Following the tournament, team Co-Captain Tomuke Ebuwei noted that “we were a couple of plays away from winning this and other key games. If it were not for a couple of missed opportunities we would be planning our trip to France in December.” The match was so tight that it was tied with one minute left in the match. However, overcoming four 2-minute penalties more than Canada (seven total), proved to be too much of an obstacle in the end. Tomuke Ebuwei and Edina Batar led the way for the WNT with five goals a piece. All of Edina ’s goals came on 7-meter penalty shots, where she was 5 for 6 on the day.

 

In its second game, the WNT lost to eventual champion Brazil by a score of 11 – 40. Brazil is one of the top teams in the world, and are currently ranked 8th. Even though the outcome wasn’t in doubt, the WNT played hard throughout the game led by Kathy Darling with 3 goals. Player-coach Dawn Allinger Lewis noted “In the America’s, Brazil is currently in a class by themselves. However, it is clear our athletes are gaining a much better understanding of the game. They are starting to read and react appropriately; they have begun to make decisions for themselves and are moving like handball players.”

 

The WNT stepped up their performance in Game 3 with a 23 – 23 tie with Paraguay. The US team was down three at the half, but fought back and took a 4 goal lead with 10 minutes left in regulation play. Megan Ballard led all scorers with 7 goals, and player-coach Dawn Allinger Lewis chipped in 6. Goalie Anca Stevens had a solid game, saving 34%. Co-Captain Edina Batar recognized her accomplishment by stating that “Anca was a tremendous support to our team. She brought her “A” game throughout the entire tournament.” But at the end of the day, turnovers and penalties continued to plague the WNT with 5 2-minute sendoffs hurting the chances for victory. In commenting on the match, Assistant Coach Thomas Broend stated that “the only thing we are missing is to win the close games. Now we are playing handball at a good level.”

 

The WNT lost its next match to Uruguay by a score of 16 – 21. The US was led in scoring by Dawn Allinger Lewis (5 goals) and Tomuke Ebuwei (4 goals). The fatigue of four games in four days began to rear itself. Perhaps the only but striking statistics to come from the hard fought, ugly match were that the US met two team goals – 1) holding their opponent to under 24 goals and 2) being handed less two-minute penalties than their opponents (2 to 3).

 

In the WNT’s final game of the tournament, they had a well deserved win over Mexico , a team they had lost to only a month earlier. The final score was 29 – 23. The team had a tournament low 19 turnovers. Sarah Gascon played the best international match of her young career, scoring 7 goals. Tomuke matched her seven goals with a solid match all around. And Anca performed at a world class level saving 44%. After the win, Co-Captain Edina Batar remarked “The team has improved since our last competition. Our number of turnovers has drastically decreased and our shooting percentage was much higher than what we usually perform. The younger players showed more commitment and contributed in a much higher scale than during our last international competition in Mexico ."

 

In summarizing the tournament, Dawn Allinger Lewis remarked as follows “Even though the WNT did not qualify for the World Championships, the tournament can be viewed as a good gauge and a positive step in the right direction. Our improvement was noted by a number of our competitor’s coaches. The results demonstrate that too. The challenge is, our competitors play continues to evolve as well. Our players simply need more experience playing in big games…those which match the PAC and Pan American Games level of significance.”

 

Following the tournament, the WNT will break for the summer before returning to training camp in the fall. The USOC supports our efforts to place athlete’s overseas, gaining experience by playing for clubs throughout Europe .