Minnesota State Handball Association

The results are in for the 34th year of the TC League and the Scraps (out of the U of M) cleared the last hurdle to win the championship in dramatic fashion.

Four of the five teams held the top spot at some point during the season (see graph)

Third place went to the River Rats, captained by Mike Kloos out of Life Time Fridley over the St. Paul Ball Breakers captained by Brain Burke, also out of Life Time Fridley.  In was an exciting 20-13 win with Kevin Pattain and Ed Brazman taking the #2 Doubles with a tight 20-21, 21-12, 11-6 win for the River Rats. Brian Burke and Joey Nordahl won the #1 Doubles 21-16, 21-6 for the Ball Breakers.   Quinn Foley took the #1 singles with a solid win over Mat Langhorst 21-16, 21-12.

The championship match between 98th Street, captained by John Miller and The Scraps, captained by Josiah Hakala kept the fans on the edge of their seats until the very end.   Sergio Zamunda (Scraps) Defeated Steve Tamminga in the #1 Singles, 21-10, 21-13.  98th Street's championship lineup strategy nearly worked, successfully countering The Scraps' stacked #1 doubles team of Mike Gustafson/Ryan Pesch with Tom Bowman/Andy Nett, but it came at the expense of coming a hair short at #2 doubles.  Nett and Bowman won their match 21-13, 21-17 setting up a showdown in the #2 Doubles match.  

Andrew Burkhart and Josiah Hakala won the first game easily 21-10 but Brett Broxey/Kris Schaumann stormed back with 21-13 win in the second game.  It looked like it was all over as Broxey/Schaumann trailed 1-9 in the tie breaker before coming back to 9-9, only to shank a second-player serve into the floor. Glimmers of hope for a full comeback still ensued as Burkhart was immediately thwarted and, after converting one point for 10-9, it looked like Hakala would succumb to a bottom-board return from Schaumann. But a prayerful leap and desperately extended left arm would put Hakala belly up, sliding into the side wall, and ... celebrating a rollout - one of the least likely conclusions to any match, let alone to a team championship.

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