Boston wins the 4th League Tournament and qualifies to the elite nationals!
Cambridge, MA - April, 2010 - by M. Schwalbe
On April 10, the New England Freeze (NEF) hosted their Northeast League Tournament in hospitable town of Chatham, thanks to Radoslav Delchev. Unlike the previous tournaments, this one had only three of the four league teams. New York Athletic Club (NYAC), who had lost hope in qualifying to the Elite Nationals, forfeited their games. As a result, NEF, New York City Team Handball (NYCTH) and Army Black got to play 3 games of 30min halves.
In the first game, NEF played Army. Still highly motivated to win against them after the desperate loss in the previous tournament, NEF started with a very strong defense complimented by a solid organized offense, which gave them an early lead of 4:0. But Army did not give up easily. They fought their way back into the game and prevented the Freeze from increasing their lead margin. Towards the end of the first half, the Freeze started to slack off and Army caught up slowly. But with a solid performance of the NEF bench, they went into the half-time break with a 3-goal lead.
The second ha...[read more]
Boston wins the LWM Women's Tournament
West Point, NY - March, 2010 - by Nader Shaar and Martin Deterre
This weekend, the women's team of the Boston Team Handball (BTH) club delivered a strong message to their competitors at the Laura Walker Memorial Tournament, in West Point, NY. Boston finished the tournament with a lossless record, beating NYC 24-20 in the final match.
Six teams participated in the tournament and were split into two groups: Black Bracket included Army Black, Boston, Tar Heels and Gold Bracket included Army Gold, North Carolina and New York.
In their first game, Boston took on Army Black. Army started strong and took the lead (3-1); however, Boston quickly got in the rhythm of the game and caught up, thanks to Sarah Gascon's speed on fast breaks and the teams ability to control the ball on set offense. With 5 minutes left in the first half, Army got a 2min suspension and Boston continued to hammer in goals on fast breaks, increasing their lead to 12-7. With 2 minutes left on the clock Army had the chance to reduce Boston's lead to 4 goals with a 7m throw, but Dina, Boston's goal keeper, kept the lea...[read more]
The Second Northeast League Tournament - New England Freeze getting closer to qualifying for the US Nationals
West Point, NY - December, 2009 - by M. Schwalbe
The second Northeast Handball League tournament brought us to The US Military Academy in West Point, NY. Army, a former national bronze medalist and many times the collegiate champion of the US, had had a bad start in the league and lost all three games in the first tournament ranking 4rth in the league. The New England Freeze, on the other hand, surprised everyone with a strong experienced team in the first tournament. With 2 wins against Army and NYAC, the Freeze ranked second going into the 2nd tournament. Based on the level of play at the former tournament, everyone's expectations for the tournament were no less than ‘spectacular'.
The first game for NEF was against NYAC. Once again, the Freeze started strong and got a fast 6 goal lead. After that, the New England coach started to rotate bench players, giving everyone a chance to get more game experience. Unfortunately, that backfired. A combination of hasty plays in offense and some communication problems in defense allowed NYAC to catch up, reducing New England's lea...[read more]