West Point, NY
Army hosted their annual Women’s Invitational tournament on the weekend of November 13th-14th, 2010. Eight teams participated in the tournament, including an all-Bostonian team representing the Boston Team Handball club, formerly known as the New England Freeze. The teams were split into two groups with Boston, Carolina, West Point Gold (WPG) and Ocean NJ in Group A and NYC, Tar Heels, West Point Black (WPB) and the DC Diplomats in Group B. Boston started the day with a game against WPG. With only six field players and two goal keepers, Boston managed to defeat Army by a large margin. Shortly after their first game, Boston went up against Carolina for their second game of the day. For that game, Boston was joined by Annie, their 6-foot Hungarian left back. With an additional player on their game roster, Boston reaped an easy win 16:9. Even after those two exhaustive games, the day was far from over for Boston. With the two wins against Carolina and Army and one game left against a very young team from NJ, Boston’s was practically guaranteed to top their group. In Group B, NYC beat the Diplomats to the first place seed while DC settled for second, leaving Boston and DC to face off in one semi-final while NYC was pitted against Carolina – all teams battled in their fourth game of the day! Boston went on to destroy the exhausted DC Diplomats (22:6). On Sunday, Boston and NYC competed for first place. NYC, with a full bench, a former German Bundesliga player, and some amazing goal keeping work by Ivana Milojkovic, succeeded in beating Boston 16:8. The score was not a good reflection of how the game was played as Boston managed to control the ball on offense and penetrate New York’s defense numerous times. However, Ivana made no mistakes in protecting her net and made some decisive saves that translated into fast breaks, giving NYC the lead in the game. Along with the 2nd place team accomplishment, Anne Coulter earned an individual award for being the top scorer of the tournament, with 20 goals – a title she shared with another player from NYC. This was a great come-back for Boston after a disappointing result in North Carolina only a few weeks before. Likewise, New York placed 5th at the North Carolina tournament and came back, in West Point, to deliver a strong statement that their women’s team, just like their men’s, is a serious competitor that is not to be taken lightly.
N. Shaar