Before coming to Lake Forest College, if someone were to walk up to me and inform me that there was a national sport that involved slapping balls, I would probably have called them crazy. Little did I know that I had walked onto a campus that was famous for playing handball since 1968.
Handball is likely the most misunderstood and least talked about sport on our campus. Yet, this year, 2016, marks the year that Lake Forest College won its fiftieth national title at the United States Handball Association’s Collegiate National Championships.
The Lake Forest men’s team and women’s team finished a close second in standings for the separate team titles. The first place men’s title was won by University of Limerick, and the University of Texas won the first place women’s title. Lake Forest College brought home the combined first place team title. This was the Foresters’ first combined championship without a men’s or women’s first place title since 1988.
Leo Canales ’18 and Ricardo Palma ’18 won All-America awards for their three straight wins in the Open Doubles bracket. This is the twenty-third year that the College has brought home All-America handball honors. The women’s team captains Christi Valicenti ’16 and Lisa Ledvora ’16 reached the Open Doubles semifinals and were one round away from an All-America title.
Team captains Valicenti and Anthony Collado ’17 were the College’s top handball players; both reached the Open Singles quarterfinals.
Matthew Chu ’16, also a team captain, competed in the Men’s Open Singles Division and reached the semifinals. Ledvora matched Chu’s performance in the Women’s Open Singles. The two seniors were key players in scoring points and helped obtain the team’s overall combined title victory.
Men’s doubles partners Carter Kounovsky ’18 and Jon Vargas ’18 advanced to the Double’s A Division’s quarterfinals. Women’s double partners Billie Rodman ’19 and Lily Shehadi ’19 also fought hard to reach the semifinals in the B Doubles bracket.
More points were scored in the A1 brackets, with Palma and John Snider ’16 competing on the men’s side, while Kyra Vidas ’18 and Marina Alessi ’16 competed on the women’s side. Palma advanced all the way to the men’s final, and Vidas made it to the women’s semifinals.
Kounovsky and Max Roberts ’18 represented the team in the A2 Singles bracket, with Roberts making it to the semifinals. Bethany Fyffe ’18 won two rounds in the A2 Singles.
Jessica Chang ’16 and Frankie Corrado ’18 lead the women in the B1 bracket, reaching the quarterfinal round. Rodman, Sophie Goss ’17, and Vargas also played well in the B1 round. Monica Redfern ’19 and Shehadi played in the B2 bracket, with Shehadi reaching the quarterfinals. Pulkit Diwan ’16 played in the Men’s B3 Singles, Carter Ostrander ’19 won the C3 Singles title, and David Carrillo ’19 reached the C3 Singles round of 16.
