The World Players of Handball is proud to be on site at the 65th USHA National Four-Wall Championships at the Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley, CA. Saturday’s action featured Paul Brady aiming for #10, the women’s singles semifinals, the men’s doubles semifinals, the women’s doubles semifinals and the men’s big ball doubles semifinals.
Paul Brady entered Saturday’s men’s singles final trying to win one for the other thumb, as a repeat victory over last year’s finalist Emmett Peixoto would make 10 titles for “The Gunner” from Ireland. Peixoto entered the final on the heels of one of his best performances in recent memory, a two-game thrashing over Sean Lenning. Playing in their seventh tournament match in the past 18 months, Peixoto had yet to win a game over his nemesis but proved that he could challenge the three-time defending world champion with several close games in Houston ’15 and Denver ’14.
Peixoto started well in the final, scoring the fist three points on his first service inning to take an early 3-0 lead. Brady would settle in, scoring 21 of the next 24 points to take a one-game lead. “Brady’s power and ability to retrieve nearly flat rollouts makes him very difficult to beat,” stated 45+ national champion and WPH guest broadcaster Chris Watkins. “Brady has so many different ways to win rallies.”
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Game two saw Brady take a 3-0 lead before a six-point Peixoto run momentarily shifted the momentum. A timeout by Brady and a flat rollout on the ensuing rally quickly squashed the Peixoto momentum. Brady scored 21 of the final 25 points of the match to reach double digits in USHA national singles championships, 21-6, 21-8.
“I want to thank Emmett, the USHA, the WPH for the live streaming and my girlfriend,” revealed an emotional Paul Brady during the awards presentation.
Catriona Casey advanced to the women’s final in a nearly 90-minute battle against rising 18-year old sensation Cianna Ni Churraoin. The clash of the Irish superstars produced 27 rallies of 15 or more shots, with Casey winning 20 of those extended rallies. Casey was able to extend leads in the second half of both games to overcome CNC, 21-11, 21-9. Casey will face her greatest rival, Aisling Reilly, in Sunday’s final. Reilly simply overwhelmed and overpowered Danielle Daskalakis in the second women’s semifinal, sweeping both games in less than 35 minutes.
Tune into race4eight.com at 10 am pst on Sunday, June 14th to watch live coverage of the women’s singles final, the men’s doubles final, the women’s doubles final and the men’s big ball doubles final. Live streaming on race4eight.com is possible because of the generous donations of the USHA and WPH. Thank you! To follow the action from 65th USHA National Four-Wall Championships, log onto ushandball.org and wphlive.tv. To follow the brackets and scores, click Here.
7:45pm Sat, June 13th Update: Last Minute Changes by the USHA to the Show Court bring this Sunday Morning line-up (all times Pacific):
9:30am Aisling Reilly vs Catriona Casey – Women’s Final
11:00am Vic Perez/Mando Ortiz vs Marcos Chavez/Sean Lenning – Men’s Pro Doubles Final
12:30pm Big Ball Pro Doubles Final