On Monday the 4^th of March, the U11 Girls Ballyconnell NS team travelled to Gormanstown Co. Meath to compete in the Olympic Handball Leinster Provincial Finals after winning the Carlow County Final.

We faced St Attracta’s NS of Dublin in our opening match. The girls displayed tremendous skill and determination during this game, with St Attracta’s (who were the eventual competition winners) coming out on top in the end.

In their second game, the girls demonstrated why they were crowned Carlow County Champions against Fermoyle NS from Longford. All their hard work and excellent team work paid dividends as they came away with a 4-2 victory. Special mention must go to Aoife Bolger for her efforts during this game as she scored all four of the goals and was awarded the MVP award for her heroics.

We then played St Attracta’s NS and Fermoyle NS once again in our second round of fixtures after the break. Ballyconnell fought right to the very end in the second game versus St Attracta’s, however, despite our best efforts and hard work, St Attracta’s proved to be too strong once again. In our final game against Fermoyle, we played out a very entertaining 4-4 draw, with Aoife Nolan being awarded the MVP accolade after making a string of fantastic saves throughout the game.

It was a great achievement for the girls to qualify for such a prestigious tournament considering they had only just began playing Olympic Handball in October. With that said, they should especially take great pride in their performances on the day and hopefully we will be able to go a step further next year!