WPH Press, Portland, OR, 2/23/25
Portland’s Multnomah Athletic Club played host to the 2025 USHA Collegiate Nationals, featuring more than two-hundred collegiate players from across the North America and Ireland.
Men’s Open Singles
Race 4 Eight pros Ray Ure, Ivan Burgos, and Jab Bike and a strong contingent of Irish collegiate players headlined the Men’s Open Singles field.
Burgos entered the 2025 USHA Collegiate Nationals as the top seed but was stunned in the quarterfinals by Mankato’s Bryan Trejo. Mankato’s Jab Bike met Trejo in the upper bracket semifinals after Ireland’s Cormac Finn in two games in the quarterfinals. Bike avoided becoming Trejo’s second consecutive upset victim, dropping his Mankato teammate in two games to make his first Collegiate Nationals final.
Ray Ure was dominant in the bottom bracket in his quest for his first collegiate national title, blitzing Eoin Brennan and Kyle Jordan in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, by a combined score of 84-25.
After taking the first game in pursuit of his first collegiate national singles title, Ure found himself trailing 5-12 in game two, as Bike played aggressively to build his lead. Ure found his range, catching Bike at fourteen and eventually leading 17-14. Ure did not convert a setup with his right that would have made the score 18-14, opening the door for a Bike push. Bike seized his opportunity, scoring four consecutive points with two flat back wall kills to lead 18-17. Ure forced a side out with a two-wall pass, pointing to his head to display his satisfaction with his shot selection. Bike tied the score at eighteen and the pair traded side outs with return of serve kills. Ure ended the match with three points in his final inning, wrestling the collegiate national monkey off his back.
“Winning the collegiates was honestly relieving,” stated Ure. “The past three years were some of the tougher losses of my career but they also shaped me to be the player that I am now.”
“Ray plays a poetic style of handball, power, control, and flexibility,” stated handball legend Naty Alvarado, Jr. watching the final courtside supporting his nephew Jab.
Quarterfinals
Trejo def Burgos 19-21, 21-8, 11-0
Bike def Finn 21-9, 21-9
Jordan def Grace 21-20, 21-7
Ure def Brennan 21-11, 21-4
Semifinals
Bike def Trejo 21-6, 21-16
Ure def Jordan 21-7, 21-3
Final: Ure def Bike 21-11, 21-18
Men’s Doubles Champions: Pimentel/Burgos
Women’s Open Singles
Top-seeded Clodagh Munroe was dominant on her march to a second consecutive collegiate national title in the upper bracket, sweeping Noelle Dowling in the quarterfinals and Leah Minogue in the semifinals to make the final.
Cuileann Bourke entered the Women’s Open Singles as the sixth seed and dispatched third-seeded Jodie Keeling in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Amy Brennan in the semifinals to meet Munroe in the final.
Munroe continued her mastery of collegiate handball, dropping Bourke in a two-game, one-sided final. Munroe’s mastery of the all-court game was too much for Bourke, who found herself scrambling and pinned in the back corners due to Munroe’s control and precision.
Quarterfinals
Munroe def Dowling 21-4, 21-7
Minogue def Kinane 21-7, 21-9
Bourke def Keeling 21-5, 21-15
Brennan def Grace 21-11, 21-8
Semifinals
Munroe def Minogue 21-10, 21-16
Bourke def Brennan 21-19, 21-13
Final: Munroe def Bourke 21-3, 21-9
Women’s Doubles Champions: Munroe/Grace
Men’s Team Champions: Minnesota State University, Mankato
Women’s Team Champions: Minnesota State University, Mankato
Overall Team Champions: Minnesota State University, Mankato
Watch the matches from the 2025 USHA Collegiate Nationals on the USHA YouTube channel HERE
Follow the brackets from the 2025 USHA Collegiate Nationals HERE
For more on the 2025 USHA Collegiate Nationals, visit ushandball.org
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer