Sophomores Leo Canales and Ricardo Palma earned Handball All-America honors and Head Coach Mike Dau won his 50th national title at the United States Handball Association Collegiate National Championships over the weekend.
Lake Forest finished a close second in the men's and women's team standings but claimed the combined team title. It was the Foresters' first combined championship without a men's or women's title since 1988. The University of Limerick ended Lake Forest's streak of seven straight men's championships while the University of Texas prevented the Foresters from winning back-to-back women's titles.
Canales and Palma ensured Dau of at least one All-America performance for the 23rd year in a row by rattling off three straight wins in Open Doubles, including a 21-9, 21-11 triumph in Saturday's semifinal round.
In other men's doubles action, sophomores Carter Kounovsky and Jon Vargas advanced to the A Division's quarterfinals.
On the women's side seniors Christi Valicenti and Lisa Ledvora came one round shy of All-America status, reaching the Open Doubles semifinals, while freshmen Billie Rodman and Lily Shehadi advanced to the same round in B Doubles.
The Foresters' top singles players on the weekend were Valicenti and fellow senior Anthony Collado. Both players dropped opening round matches but played their way back into the Women's and Men's Open Singles quarterfinals.
Canales and senior Matthew Chu also competed in the Open Singles Division but fell in the round of 16. Chu then prevailed in the Open 9-16 quarterfinals before falling in the semifinals. Ledvora matched Chu's performance in the Women's Open Singles and Open 9-16 Divisions.
Palma and senior John Snider played in the Men's A1 Singles while sophomore Kyra Vidas and senior Marina Alessi competed in the Women's A1 bracket. Palma advanced all the way to the men's final while Vidas made it to the semifinals on the women's side. Snider won twice to get into the bracket but fell in the round of 16, as did Alessi.
Sophomore Max Roberts rounded out the Forester men's team's top six with a semifinal appearance in the A2 Singles bracket and classmate Carter Kounovsky won twice before falling in the division's round of 16. Brittany Fyffe, another sophomore, also won twice before being eliminated in the women's round of 16.
The Forester women had four players competing in the B1 Singles Division, led by senior Jessica Chang and sophomore Frankie Corrado, who each reached the quarterfinal round. Rodman and junior Sophia Goss were knocked out in the round of 16. Vargas split his four matches over the weekend at reach the quarterfinals of the men's B1 bracket.
Shehadi was a quarterfinalist in the women's B2 Division and freshman Monica Redfern reached the bracket's round of 16. Freshman Quinn Matuschek was eliminated in the quarterfinals in the women's C1.
Senior Pulkit Diwan reached the Men's B3 Singles round of 16, freshman Carter Ostrander won the C3 Singles title, and fellow freshman David Carrillo reached the C3 Singles round of 16.
The Forester program has now claimed eight straight combined USHA championships and 19 overall. The team has also captured 20 men's titles and 11 women's.
