Another eventful Sunday of the Wellington Handball League.
The Vikings women team were facing off with the Vic Uni Ravens and the game was close, competitive and surely good to watch. Both teams added recently some new players, mainly foreign players, so there was a certain expectation of both teams raising their level of play.
Vic Uni started from the get go and build a slight 2 goal lead that they defended most of the game. While the Vikings played reasonable well in attack their defence still offered the Ravens way too many easy scoring opportunities and so they never really managed to equalise or even get in the lead. In the last 10-12 minutes, the Ravens, were able to add a couple of goals to the lead. The Vikings fought hard, came back to a 2 goal deficit (20:22) but the Ravens hold on to the lead and and finished with a 21:26 win.
Vikings HC – Michaela; Maddy 7, Amelie 5, Bridget 3, Hannah C 2, Paris 1, Nina 1, Laura 1, Taye 1, Siri, Malin
Vic Uni HC – Abbey; Ida 12, Maddie 8, Maja 3, Monique 1, Kelsey 1, Meli 1, Hanne, Antonia, Chrissy, Isaure
The Vikings Norse team was facing the Vic Uni Turtles fighting for a place in the Top 4. As this was the last round of the Pool – Round Robin, the winner of this game pretty much qualified for the Top 4 round. Both teams were obviously very focused and aiming to win.
The Turtles came out blazing and build a quick lead (0:3, 1:6, 3:10) that caught the Vikings team quite a bit from the side. For some reason the Norse really struggled and the Turtles knew how to capitalise on those struggles, while going with a 10:20 into halftime.
In the second half the Norse wanted to ensure the desaster happened in the first half won’t be repeated and they played with a bit more structured. Still unnecessary turnovers invited the Turtles to easy fast break goals that pretty much broke the Norse spirit towards the end of the game. The closes the Norse came was within 6 goals, but that wasn’t enough to shake the Turtles. Congratulations to the Turtles for a well deserved win (23:35) and the qualification for the Top 4.
Vikings HC Norse – Cassius, James; Daniel 13, Sam 3, Wagner 3, Nico 2, Miguel 2, PJ, Michael, Pierre, Rakesh
Vic Uni HC Turtles – Andrija, Jerome; Ben P 8, Aleksa 5, Luke 5, Ocean 5, Patrick D 4, Thomas 3, Ben A 3, Michael 1, Tile 1, Will, Sean, Pat
The Vikings Danes faced today the Northern Aguilas, a top of the table clash, first versus second. Even that both teams were already qualified for the Top4, there was a lot of pride to gain in this game. As expected the game was close most of the time, mainly with the Northern Aguilas leading by 1 or 2, but the Danes fought hard to stay close. Unfortunately too many unforced turnovers in attack invited the Aguilas to easy goals and that should proof to be the difference on this day. Both teams had really good goalkeeper today that kept the game very exciting for the audience. After a 11:13 half time lead, the Aguilas pulled away over the last 6-8 minutes of the game to secure a 20:28 win and finishing the Pool round on top of the table. Congratulations Aguilas, well done!
Vikings HC Danes – Loann; Paul 6, Luke 5, Alex 5, Todd 2, Jack 1, Harry 1, Angus
Northern Aguilas HC – Yoshi; Nick 8, Tim 8, James C 4, James P 3, Jono 2, Cam 1, Aaron 1, Oscar 1, Max, Tyler, Matt
For the men competition that was the last day of the Pool Round and now we will have another set of Pool Rounds – a Top4 and a Bottom3 competiton based on a Round Robin.