Minnesota State Handball Association
2014 Open Doubles State Handball Championships
April 7-8, 2014
University of Minnesota Rec. Center, Minneapolis, MN
The competition was hot with six of the trophy matches going to tie-breakers. Comebacks and turn-a-rounds throughout the tournament made for some great handball entertainment at this years version of the state Open Doubles competition. Champions were crowned in five divisions with a lot of the hardware heading south to Mankato. The recently expanded and remodeled University of Minnesota RecCenter once again proved to be a great venue for championship handball.
In the Open, Andy Nett and John Nett extended their streak with a fifth straight championship with a win over Ryan and Bruce Pesch. The finals were historic as two father-son teams competed in the championship match for the first time in MSHA history. Only one team, Mat Langhorst and Tom Bowman scored in double figures on the Netts. Andy was definitely on his game in the finals shooting from either side, blistering his serves and keeping the Pesch duo off-balance. The Pesch team had a much tougher road to the finals wining tie-breakers in the quarterfinals against Mike Wells and John Stoffel and then again in the semifinals against Mike Gustafson and Tim Kappes. Ryan demonstrated his patience in understanding the other teams strengths and weaknesses in the first two games and then attacking in the tie-breakerwinning each at 11-2. Gustafson and Kappes took third place in an entertaining three-game match against Langhorst and Bowman.
The first round losers in the Open played for the A championship. Mike Wells and John Stoffel took the honors pretty much dominating their way into the finals. While second place team Chris Iverson and Marc Tobin (forced into the A’s when Tobin’s flight into town was delayed Friday night) barely got to play before the finals. So one team was on their forth match and one was on their second. Wells and Stoffel still dominated winning 21-13, 21-12. That tie-breaker loss to the Peschs in the Open stung a little. Nick Olson and Dane Swanson took third place in a close three game match over Joe Van Thomme and David Miller. The youngsters really show that handball is alive and well in Minnesota.
Bailey Chandler and Kara Smith could not repeat in the B Doubles this year. Last year’s runner up father-son team of John and Steve Laliberte finally broke through defeating Tikhon Esaulenko and Joe Nordahl for the title. Chandler and Smith claimed third place over Jessica Bohlken (playing in both the B and C divisions) and partner Matt Johnson. Dean Held and Mike Leiter proved experience can defeat youth beating Ted Spencer and John Thompson in a tie-breaker for consolation honors.
Kristina Rude teamed with Ali Miller to defeat Steve Gering and Adrian Anderson for the C Doubles title. This Kristina’s second C title in a row – time to move up! Josh Hoflock and Shannon Strand took third again this year against Brady Grimm and court rat Jessica Bohlken. Alex Meyer and Matt Date took consolation honors defeating new Jessica Herion and Missy Kohout.
Ray Miller (a last minute replacement for the injured Sheldon Silberman) and Larry Larson mastered the Golden Masters A defeating Brett Broxey and Hank Ulrich who returned from several medical issues over the past year. Larson and Miller took the difficult route playing a 2-1/2 hour match against Mike Kloos and Brian Cooncein the semifinals and turning around in half an hour to play a 2 hour match against Broxey and Ulrich – we think they were unhappy with their first round BYE and wanted to get their moneys worth by playing tie-breakers all day. Learn how to shoot Ray! Coonce and Kloos came out shooting and overwhelmed Mike Erdmacczyk and Tim Fichtel for third place. Greg Taylor and Brian Mahaffy, warming up for the Super Masters in two weeks took consolation in a lengthy three-gamer against Adlaberto Cordero and Ed Simonet.
Open (A drop-down) Doubles
Preliminary Round
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Finals
Third Place
A Doubles (drop down)
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Finals
Third Place
Consolation
B Doubles
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Finals
Third Place
Consolation
C Doubles
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Finals
Third Place
Golden Masters A (50+) Doubles
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Finals
Third Place
Consolation