Seven Teams Finish Day One of Goalball Nationals Undefeated

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – The opening day of the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes Goalball National Championships served as a preview of what’s to come as teams from Michigan, Colorado, Florida and California all finished the day undefeated.

Goalball is a Paralympic sport played by blind and visually impaired persons both in the United States and around the world in which three athletes on each of two teams aim to launch a ball at speeds of up to 40 mph into the opposing side's goal. Nine bells located in a ball roughly the dimensions of a basketball help the athletes track the ball's location.

In a rematch from last year’s men’s gold medal game, the Pennsylvania Association of Blind Athletes took on the New Jersey Thunder. While New Jersey won the national title last season as well as both the USABA Mideast and Midwest Regional Championships earlier this season, the PABA Venom capitalized on its dominant throwing to win the game, 7-4.

Two-time Paralympian John Mulhern (Lebanon, Pa.) led the PABA Venom in scoring throughout the game and while New Jersey led early in the game, Mulhern and his teammates regained the lead late in the first half and never let it go, scoring four more goals and holding New Jersey scoreless for most of the second. Mulhern’s Paralympic teammate Dan Gallant (Howell, N.J.) made the best of five penalty shots throughout the game, scoring three goals on PABA penalties and adding a fourth with two minutes remaining in the game.

In other men’s games, the Western Michigan University Wrecking Crew defeated the New York Knights, 9-3 with goals scored by all four players: Athens Paralympian Tyler Merren (Kalamazoo, Mich.), Stephen Denuyl (Clinton, Mich.), John Kusku (Warren, Mich.) and Gerardo Ortiz (Holland, Mich.)

Northeast Florida defeated their high school opponents from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, 8-1.  The Michigan Spitfire defeated the Utah Explosion in a close match, 6-4.  Finally, the Bay Area Outreach Program (BORP) won a mercy rule decision over the Illinois Tsunami, 16-6.

On the women’s side, the Colorado Bandits won their first game, defeating the Illinois Tsunami, 3-1. Lindsay Sloan (Wauconda, Ill.) scored the first goal of the game off a corner shot; however Athens Paralympians Jennifer Armbruster (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Robin Theryoung (Clarkston, Mich.) each scored goals to secure the victory.  Colorado continued its success later in the evening with an 11-2 win over BORP’s women’s team.

Athens Paralympian Asya Miller (Battle Creek, Mich.) showed that she still has one of the most powerful throws in women’s goalball, scoring six goals in a 7-1 Kalamazoo Chaos win over the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.

New Jersey’s women’s team split its games, winning the first over Utah, 4-3, before losing the second to the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, 6-4.

Preliminary round play continues Friday from 8 a.m. – 5:55 p.m. at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.

For more information, please contact Nicole Jomantas, at (719) 630-0422, ext. 10 or njomantas@usaba.org

USABA, a member organization of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is a non-profit organization that provides training for blind and visually impaired athletes for competition in nine sports. USABA members range from blind children developing sports skills to elite athletes who train for competitions such as the Paralympic Games, the world's second largest athletic competition that draws more than 4,000 disabled athletes.