Forty eight girls came out to participate in the 2006 Girls Handball Individual Championship in what seemed like a handball marathon. The event was held at Grand Street Campus on Thursday May, 25th. The four hour event began with some exciting singles and doubles match-ups.

In the singles event, the quarter finals were quite competitive as Sarah Au (Bklyn Tech) defeated Tanaya Green (Boys &Girls) 21-15 and Lily Gao (Townsend Harris) defeated Dorothy Kyi (Midwood) 21-18. In addition, Linda Thai (Townsend Harris) upset Queens Champion Joan Wu (Long Island City) 21-20. The defending city champion, Quasia Watson (Boys& Girls) cruised into the semifinals defeating Cherly Poon (MSIT).

The semifinals seemed like a long warmup for Quasia Watson and Sarah Au with both easily moving into the finals. The final was both memorable and thrilling. With game faces on, both players stayed strong through long volleys, down the line aces, hard corner shots and great saves. The crowd applauded and shouted as the score seemed to freeze at 16-7. Au slowly narrowed the margin a bit and starting putting some pressure on Watson. After many turnovers and numerable time outs, Quasia pulled away; successfully defending her title and bringing home the gold. The final score was 21-13.

The doubles event was equally as exciting. Noticeably fatigued, from grueling semifinals, Fort Hamilton’s first doubles and Townsend Harris’ first doubles squared off in the Finals. Fighting for the championship seemed to give both teams a second wind. Mary Fung & SaraWei (Fort Hamilton) were very impressive maintaining a slight lead till finally winning 21-17.

The battles for third place were also impressive. Townsend Harris teammates, Lily Gao and Linda Thai, gave up nothing to each other. Keeping their competitive spirit they fought to a final score of 21-18 with Lily winning over Linda. The doubles of Jenny Chen & Kelly Ng (Bklyn Tech) had a slightly easier time defeating Midwood’s May Won & Nhung Ton 21-11.

Finally, Linda Thai did not walk away empty handed as she won the regular season Leaders Award for Most Aces. Quasia Watson also added to her awards collection capturing the regular season Most Kills Award.

What an exciting end to a great Girls Handball season. Girls Handball is truly looking up!