Portland, Oregon, August 28th, 2022
By Nick Flores
The 6th annual Portland One-Wall Big Ball Doubles tournament was held on Sunday, August 28th at Roseway Heights Middle School in Portland, Oregon. The Oregon Handball Association was proud to once again partner with the World Players of Handball for another fantastic Oregon handball event. The weather cooperated, as conditions were dry and the cool mid-60s morning air warmed into the low 70s as the tournament completed. The chance to win cash attracted 24 players to compete for the first prize money tournament offered in Oregon since 2019.
The $1000 first place prize enticed the best players in the region to enter, including the 2017 and 2018 champion Bob Herrera, the 2019 champions Peter Tran and Ed Fredenburgh, as well as former Oregon 4-Wall Singles champion Matt Steele and former Oregon and Pacific Northwest 4-Wall Singles champion Ryan Grossenbacher.
The unique format involved separating the 24 players into an “Open half” and a “B half”, and then drawing names out of a hat to pair one “Open” player with one “B” player to comprise each team. Teams were then placed on the bracket in order of their being drawn to form a bracket of 12 teams. Matches were set for one game to 21, except the finals, which was best of three games, two to 21 with an 11-point tiebreaker.
In the semifinals, Peter Tran (Bellevue, WA) and Nick Fredenburgh (Beaverton, OR) defeated Ed Fredenburgh (Beaverton, OR) and his mononymous partner Robert (Vancouver, WA) by a score of 21 to 15 to advance on the top half. On the bottom half of the bracket, Eddie Johnson (Portland, OR) and Austin Biddle (Milwaukie, OR) dominated Justin Munoz (Gresham, OR) and his partner known only as “Los” (Portland, OR) by a score of 21 to 5 to advance to the finals.
The three-game finals match lived up to expectations as the most exciting clash of the tournament. Johnson and Biddle started off hot, executing high percentage pass shots and keeping the ball in play, on their way to a tight 21-18 victory to take the first game. Johnson and Biddle kept up the pressure to start the second game, building a 15 to 4 lead over Tran and Fredenburgh before a frustrated Tran called a timeout to regroup. Tran dug deep to his New York roots and put on a show from that point on, dazzling the crowd with diving kills and re-kills, as he and Fredenburgh battled back to tie the score at 17-17. Tran needed another timeout, and as they came back in Fredenburgh made his move, repeatedly executing overhand lob serves that earned weak returns from Johnson. Tran and Fredenburgh scored the final 4 points of the game to force the tiebreaker.
Tran and Fredenburgh built a 5 to 0 lead to start the tiebreaker and using the same Fredenburgh lob serve / Tran kill shot combo, closed out the tiebreaker by a score of 11 to 5 to win the match and the $800 prize. Johnson and Biddle received $500 for second place.
WPH ambassador Nick Flores conducted a Junior WPH clinic with the juniors in attendance. Flores worked with the juniors on the importance of serve placement in one-wall, with an emphasis on using angle serves while taking care not to serve the ball out of play. The juniors each took a turn practicing these serves while another junior would attempt to return the serves. Next, Flores worked with the juniors on executing the fly shot in one-wall, and why it is so important to take aggressive shots due to the lack of a back wall. To cap off the junior clinic, the juniors played a pick-up game with some of the finalists to practice the skills they had learned.
Thank you to 2016 USHA Volunteer of the Year Kimberley Duval for organizing the tournament and keeping the game of one-wall alive in Oregon. To see pictures of the event and connect with the group, please visit Kimberley’s Portland One-Wall Facebook page by clicking here.
Thank you to Steve Grow and the Alten Handball Foundation for their support, generously donating money to the prize purse each year the tournament has been held. To support the Alten Handball Foundation in their mission to promote handball in the Pacific Northwest, please visit their website by clicking here.
Thank you to the World Players of Handball for generously supporting the tournament, including reporting on the tournament, providing WPH swag for the players, and supporting Oregon’s junior handball initiatives. To support the WPH in their mission to promote our beautiful game, please visit their website by clicking here.
Nick Flores, Chairman
Oregon Handball Association
www.OregonHandball.org