Stirling women’s handball brought home a gold medal in the Scottish Student Sports finals.
On Saturday, February 25, at Grange Academy in Kilmarnock, the four best-ranked Scottish handball teams competed in the Final Four of the SSS tournament. The Stirling handball men’s team placed fourth, whilst the women’s team stood on the highest step of the podium.
“I am very proud of our performance,” said team captain Luca Heymann.
“The girls have put so much work in the preparation of these matches, so it was rewarding to receive the gold medal and see how the training has paid off.”
Stirling started the day perfectly, beating the University of Strathclyde 12-8 in the semi-finals.
Stirling player and SSS Sports Chair Alice Hedemo says, “It was a tough semifinal. We played and won against Strathclyde twice this season, and we were confident that we could win a third time.”
If the odds seemed to be in Stirling’s favour in the semifinals, that was not the case in the final against Heriot-Watt University.
Heriot-Watt had already beaten Stirling twice in league competition. The first game was a hard-fought 28-27, with the second match finishing 33-26.
In the gold medal match, though, Stirling turned the tables. The final score was 18-7 to Stirling, an 11-point swing in their favour.
“We comfortably won against Heriot-Watt,” captain Heymann said. “Everything we worked on during training came into practice and our coach Greg made our defence system bulletproof. We lost twice against them during the year, so seeing how much we improved was even better.”
A chance for further handball success in Derby
This is the second year that the handball team has competed in official leagues, and the results have been very positive so far.
We were all very happy,” Hedemo said. “We are so proud that we bring a gold medal home in our second competitive year.”
The handball team’s competitions are not over, as they will be heading to Derby, England, to play in the BUCS finals. The teams that played in the final four of the SSS league are automatically qualified for the BUCS finals, where they will face teams from all over the UK.
Stirling will travel to Derby with both the men’s and women’s teams, hoping to achieve good results.
The women’s team won the bronze medal in the BUCS Trophy last year and is ready to compete again this year in the Championship.
“We were all very euphoric leaving with a gold medal around our necks,” Heymann said.
“I think being Scottish Champions gives us a good boost of energy in preparation for the BUCS tournament in a few weeks.”
The handball team will play in the BUCS finals on Saturday, March 9, and Sunday, March 10.
Featured image credit: Stirling University Handball Club
She/Her, Journalism and Film & Media student at the University of Stirling
