Vic Girls Go To New Caledonia!

 NZ Toroa - Iva Sajdl, Claire Hammond, Melissa Huggins, Jess Barwick

 NZHF Fantails - Ellen Wilmann Staff, Sandy Mamoli, Selma Lie, Sandrine Couval, Katharina Menge, Dricka Arouche

Good luck girls!

Vic Girls Victorious in Palmerston!

The Victoria University women's handball team has done it again, winning their third national tournament of the year!

 

Their first game of the day was against one of the top men's sides; the girls played well but couldn't come away with a win.

 

The girls' first win came in their second game of the day, against the Massey women's team. Ellen put in another star performance, especially in defence where she shut down one of Massey's best attackers. Iva Sajdl played really well in pivot, putting herself in good position on attack and scoring lots of goals.

The girls then played the top men's team in New Zealand, getting first blood. Unfortunately they couldn't keep the lead, with the Spartans coming out on top.

 

This was enough to put the girls into the women's final. They were up against a team which was a mix of clubs over New Zealand (including several players seconded from Vic). The mixed team didn't have a chance with Ellen Wilmann Staff on fire! Victoria University scored seven goals before the mixed team could even put one in!!!

Congrats girls on anther great tournament!

 

Lions Team gets silver!

 

The Vic Uni Lions managed a very close second, in what was a very competitive tournament.

 

Up against the mixed women's team in their first game of the day, the boys came out firing and, despite the girls putting up a good fight, the Lions were in control throughout.

 

Their second game was against the Massey men's team. It was apparent from the get-go there was a difference in experience between the two teams. The Lions' 

morning trainings, and the many games that they have played together throughout the season, gave them the edge over the Massey men. Tom McKay played a strong attacking game and had a great shot-to-goal ratio. Evan Clare's strength and power proved too much for the Massey defence and Kyle Smith's defence was strong, as usual. 

 

The Lions survived some strong attack from the Wellington Youth team, and came away with another win.

 

With three wins, the Lions ensured their place in the final against the ever-strong Spartans (also of Wellington). Despite missing some key players, the Spartans flew out to a three goal lead. Vic recovered 

well with left-handers Tom McKay and Alew Surrey slotting some very nice goals. The game was tied up at half-time, with seven goals apiece. 

 

In the second half, the Spartans' experience came into play; their defence picked up and they managed to put away three unanswered goals. Despite their best efforts, the Lions were unable to close the gap and finished second in the last tournament of the year. 

Finals of the Wellington League

After an impressive performance by the Vic Uni Lions in the semi-finals against Blenheim HC, the lads will be taking on the Spartans in the final of the 2009 Wellington League at 8:15pm on Sunday at the Kilbirnie Rec Centre, come along and support them!.  It should be an awesome game to watch.  In the semi-final match the team gave their best performance of the season so far, with everyone contributing, high team spirits, high intensity defence, and most of all scoring a lot more goals than their opponents winning 33-19.  Good luck for the final boys.  In the play-off for third and fourth, the Vic Uni Girls are taking on Blenheim HC, with throw off at 6:45 in the same building.  Good luck to them as well!.

Shorts!

A big thank you to Pelorus Trust who came through with a grant for new playing shorts for the club - much needed as we've never had matching shorts before!

Translated article about the NZ Mens Handball Team 2008 from Das Handball Magazin - August 2009

In last months edition of HM - Das Handball Magazin, ex New Zealand coach Reinhard Zimmer was interviewed, click here for the full translation.

Auckland Open - Vic Women Winners Once Again

Vic Uni sent one womens team and two mens teams to the Auckland Open 2009. The woman had two close games but managed to edge out both Auckland and Waikato to win in their division. Sandy Mamoli and Ellen Willman Staff ended up getting top equal goal-scorers! Awesome stuff girls!

The Vic Uni Lions unfortunately were put in a demanding pool.  In the first game Auckland quickly gained a 4-0 lead in the match, and despite the best efforts, the Lions were unable to bring back that difference despite playing noticeably better handball in the second stanza.  The second game was closely fought against Blenheim, but were unfortunate on a few crucial decisions which changed the tempo of the game early in the second half.  In the playoff for 5th and 6th the team proved that they had been improving their performances throughout the day with a solid performance in the defence keeping Auckland B to just 1 goal in the second half, and that coming from a 7m penalty.

The Mens Development Team showed a lot of promise and heart in their performances, but lack of experience prevailed and they unfortunately came away without a win.

Mens National Team

The Mens National Team has been selected to travel to Tahiti. Congratulations go out to Thomas McKay, Jason Roche, Kyle Smith, Matthew Thomson and Ben Potaka on their selection. 

NZHF Coaches

Congratulations to Sandy Mamoli on being appointed co-coach of the National Womens Team with Lars Bock.

South Island Handball Champs - Christchurch 2009

A mens and a womens team traveled down south representing VUW.  The Womens team were impressive coming second in their division, with Ellen Wilmann Staff getting 3rd highest goalscorer.  The mens team were in their depths, but developed through the tournament!

NZHF Womens Team

Recently the NZHF has named and selected under coach Lars Bock, a 14 strong team to travel to Brisbane in the last weekend of May to compete in the Oceania Qualification Tournament.  Congratulations to Claire Hammond, Iva Sajdl, Jess Barwick, Melissa Huggins and Tania Nedelcheva on their selections.  Good luck and all the best for the tournament in Brisbane!.

Wellington Open 2009 - Vic 1 Womens Champions!

Congratulations go out to our teams who represented our club well at the Wellington Open recently  An absolutely awesome effort by Vic 1 saw them take out 1st place in the women's division, with Vic 2 taking out 4th place there.  Our mens team didn't go too badly either apart from showing a lack of experience in their match against Auckland which saw them lose 9-7 in a low scoring affair, to end up taking out 2nd place in the Mens Contender Division.  Congratulations to all players who represented our club in the open and good luck for the upcoming season.

NZHF 2009 Womens’ National Team Development Squad

At the moment 6 players from our womens' team are vying for a position in the NZHF Womens' Team to travel to Brisbane in the last weekend of May.  Awesome effort to see our girls up there and good luck with the final selection.  More information to follow.

Wellington Open 2009

This year VUWHC is putting three teams into the fifth Wellington Open, 1 mens and 2 womens, being staged at the TSB Arena on the 25th of April.  Good luck to all the players.