69th USHA National Collegiate Championships
Congrats to all of our team champions this past weekend. View all of the title winners below:
Combined Open Division:
- Champion: Minnesota State Mankato
- Runner-up: Missouri State University
Men’s Open Division:
- Champion: Minnesota State Mankato
- Runner-up: Lake Forest College
Women’s Open Division:
- Champion: Missouri State University
- Runner-up: Minnesota State Mankato
Combined A Division:
- Champion: Texas A&M University
- Runner-up: Utah State University
Men’s A Division:
- Champion: Utah State University
- Runner-up: Pacific University
Women’s A Division:
- Champion: Utah State University
- Runner-up: Texas A&M University
Men’s B Division:
- Champion: Angelo State University
- Runner-up: Texas A&M University
Bracket winners can be viewed below.
Men’s Singles
Men’s Doubles
Women’s Singles
Women’s Doubles
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Saturday and Sunday were full of hard-fought and thrilling matches that brought out the incredible atmosphere that can only be found at the collegiates: Players playing their hearts out, and their teammates roaring them on.
The first men’s open semifinal saw David Walsh defeat reigning champion Shane Dunne in impressive fashion. Walsh overwhelmed Dunne with his power and precise pass shots taking the match 21-15, 21-12.
The second semifinal was between Minnesota State’s Ray Ure and Dublin’s Diarmuid Mulkerrins. Mulkerrins was on fire to begin the match, taking game one 21-8. Ure grinded out the second game to edge Mulkerrins 21-19. The tiebreaker saw Mulkerrins regain the form he had in the first game, and defeat Ure 11-5 to go to the finals.
The finals was a rematch from the 2020 national collegiates where Walsh and Mulkerrins met in the semifinals with Mulkerrins defeating Walsh in a tight tiebreaker. This was just as exciting.
Walsh caught fire in the first game and easily defeated Mulkerrins 21-4. Mulkerrins came out a completely different player the second game and won a lopsided game himself, 21-5. The tiebreaker was full of incredible rallies with diving retrievals and flat kills. Mulkerrins had a 10-9 lead and earned a back-wall set-up that skipped inches from the wall. Walsh came in and hit a left hand rollout followed by a lob serve that stuck on the wall that forced a Mulkerrins hand error that gave him the 11-10 victory.
Fiona Tully continued her impressive Collegiate career by winning another open title on the women’s side of the bracket.
Tully faced off with Aoife Holden in the first women’s semifinal and cruised to a 21-3, 21-5 victory. Waiting for her in the final would be Ulster University’s Mairead Fox who was making her collegiate debut.
Fox was impressive in her semifinal win over Holly Hynes, but was overmatched by the experience and all around game of Tully. Tully hit lasers down the right side and followed them up with winning kill shots and pass shots that never allowed Fox to get in her groove. Tully took the title 21-7, 21-5.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Friday’s matches produced more competitive contests with the winners advancing to Saturday’s semifinals.
The final match of the day produced some of the most excitement. In the Men’s Open quarterfinals, Ray Ure (Minnesota State, Mankato) defeated Conor Walsh (Munster Technological University), 21-16, 18-21, 11-8. Ure mixed in smooth pass shots to take game one 21-16 and was cruising towards a victory in the second game. But Walsh had other plans, sharpening his shots with pinpoint accuracy, many landing just beyond Ure’s reach. Walsh kept the pressure on Ure with unanswered scoring runs until clinched game two 21-18 to force a tiebreaker decider.
In the tiebreaker, a red hot Walsh jumped to an 8-2 lead before Ure began turning the match into his favor. But soon an ensuing rally, Walsh crumpled to the floor with an apparent injury to his left leg, causing him to use nearly 11 minutes of his injury timeout before returning. Able to get back on the court, Walsh was clearly hobbled during some moments. But Ure continued his comeback, hitting crack serves followed by amazing kills which fired up the Mankato fan base in the gallery and fueled him to the semifinal.
The main exhibition court matches are featured and streamed on two separate links on the USHA YouTube Channel. Look for LIVE streaming at top of the channel page.
Follow results by clicking on each division below.
Men’s Singles
Men’s Doubles
Women’s Singles
Women’s Doubles
See the preliminary brackets (how final brackets were formed) click HERE.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Day two brought the preliminary rounds to an end, creating the final 16 person brackets for both men and women. The first round will be played Friday morning while the quarterfinals will be play Friday Night.
—————————————————————————-
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Day one kicked off at Thomas H. Burnett Handball courts with women’s doubles and men’s singles. All schools were in action and there were great matches throughout the day!
The men began their singles while the women played the opening round of their doubles. It was great to see the return of collegiate handball. The women will begin their first round of singles Thursday morning and finish up in the afternoon. The men will also finish up their preliminary round this afternoon and bracket play will start Friday.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Missouri State University Handball Club welcomes collegiate handball athletes from around the country and from overseas this week for the 69th USHA National Collegiate Championships.
After nearly a two-year hiatus, Collegiate Handball officially kicks off again this Wednesday at 2 p.m. (Central) at the Dr. Thomas H. Burnett Handball Courts in Missouri State University Plaster Sports Complex.
See below to see the tentative start times for all singles players and doubles teams. Please note that these start times are tentative and may change up to Wednesday afternoon.
The main exhibition court matches will be featured and streamed on the USHA YouTube Channel beginning Friday afternoon.
Brackets and results will be posted here and will be updated every 2-3 hours, starting Wednesday (Feb. 23) afternoon.s
