The stage is set for the annual celebration of female handball that is the She’s Ace Festival weekend, which this year will be hosted at Croke Park and surrounding venues (UCD, Leixlip, DCU, St Brigid’s and Sportslink).
With rising standards and participation in female handball, She’s Ace has been a hugely positive development in recent seasons and continues to go from strength to strength.
The beauty of the initiative is that includes the elite level players, who showcase senior handball at its brilliant best, while also catering for juveniles, B and beginner/recreational players. A particular highlight is the team element as well as the Mother and Daughter event.
The event is played in the 4-wall and wallball codes. There are 107 entries in the 4-wall section and 75 in the wallball.
Action serves off in the Ladies Open on Friday evening and will continue right through to Sunday with the wallball grades.
The Ladies Open in 4-Wall has attracted a stellar line-up. The format is as follows:
There are four groups of four players. Games are one game to 21, with two points for a win and one point for scoring 11 or more aces.
Top spot in each group advances to the Cup semi-finals (2x15, tiebreaker to 11 if needed) with second and third going into the Shield semi-finals.
The entry list for the Open is as follows:
GROUP 1: Catriona Casey (Cork), Leah Minogue (Clare), Caitríona Millane (Clare), Patricia Byrne (Wicklow)
GROUP 2: Ciana Ní Churraoin (Galway), Aishling O'Keeffe (Cork), Ellen O'Connor (Kildare), Holly Hynes (Wexford)
GROUP 3: Fiona Tully (Roscommon), Mollie Dagg (Kildare), Laura Finn (Sligo), Jodie Keeling (Wexford)
GROUP 4: Eilise McCrory (Tyrone), Niamh Heffernan (Galway), Ashling Ní Mhaoláin (Galway), Amy Brennan (Kilkenny)
In an added boost to the event, it will be streamed live on the Spórt TG4 YouTube channel, exposing handball to a wide audience thanks to the exciting agreement which was officially launched yesterday (Wednesday).
Full schedules and further information is here .