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Women's handballers drop point in 28-28 draw in Halle-Neustadt
The scenario: The Black & Yellows went into the game in Halle in second position. At the same time second-placed BVB were in action, their direct rivals went head-to-head. Thüringer HC hosted Blomberg-Lippe and claimed a 30-26 victory, while HSG Bensheim/Auerbauch ran out 22-21 winners in Metzingen.
Personnel matters: Lena Degenhardt was the sole absentee against Halle (torn cruciate ligament). Having made her comeback in Zwickau, Dana Bleckmann was involved again.
The match & analysis: BVB had in fact been warned after the narrow 22-18 win in the reverse fixture but similarly to that game two months ago, they could not pull away from the offensively strong East Germans early on. The score was 6-6 after 10 minutes. After a quarter of an hour, Halle player Alexandra Lundström beat BVB keeper Tess Lieder from the seven-metre line to make it 9-9.
The Black & Yellows then took a two-goal lead for the first time after almost 20 minutes, Alicia Stolle scoring a wonderful goal from the backcourt. But the Borussia ladies were not able to really pull away: Cecilie Woller restored parity for the Wildcats at 14-14 seven minutes before the break.
However, the Borussia ladies subsequently went about their play with a stoic composure, used their numerical advantage in the final five minutes before the break and pulled into a 19-16 lead. But Halle did not let up and cut the deficit to 19-18 in the final 120 seconds of the first half.
Halle-Neustadt improved significantly after the restart. The consequence: While BVB spurned chance after chance, Halle scored six times in a row and went 22-19 in front. BVB had failed to score a goal for 13 minutes by that point. It was time for Henk Groener to call his first time-out.
Groener then brought on Dana Bleckmann and instructed the defence to play more offensively. But the fact the deficit did not increase to four goals was more down to BVB goalkeeper Sara Wachter, who pulled off numerous saves – including three seven-metre throws.
The momentum was back with the Black & Yellows in the period that followed. Zoë Sprengers converted her sixth seven-metre throw in the 51st minute to make it 25-25. Sixty seconds later, the outstanding Sarah Wachter found the empty net with a well-taken throw to put her team 26-25 up.
It stayed exciting until the final whistle. Halle levelled through Julia Niewiadomska one and a half minutes before the end to make it 28-28. Both BVB and Halle then failed to keep possession. Dana Bleckmann was then denied by goalkeeper Lepschi with the final play of the match.
Reactions: Henk Groener: "If you consider the entire match, the one point is okay. We unfortunately allowed the chaos to get to us. The first half was really good with 19 goals, but the second half was not with only nine goals. We went three goals behind but then found our way back into it again in part thanks to a strong Sarah Wachter in goal. We unfortunately became chaotic where we would usually have stayed calm."
Outlook: The next matchday will see coach Henk Groener's team travel to their top match away to HSG Bensheim/Auerbach on Saturday evening.
Women's handballers: Lieder, Wachter (1); Hausherr, Sprengers (13/6), Kusian, Antl (1), van Kreij (1), Stolle (3), Ossenkopp (4), Sasaki (1), Olsson, Rønning, Campos (4), Bleckmann.