KIT Handball Players among the TOP 4 in Germany

On the grounds of TUSEM Essen, on the traditional Margarethenhöhe, the student teams from Constance, Munich, Duisburg-Essen, Magdeburg, Frankfurt and Karlsruhe met last weekend for the German University Championship 2016. After the team from Munich did not show up for the tournament, the final was played in a group of 5.
In the first match, the students from the fan city met the selection from Magdeburg. In the previous finals they always lost against the team from Saxony-Anhalt, but this year this should change for the first time. The team started with a lot of focus and quickly pulled away with three goals. Due to several time penalties, simple mistakes and a change in the opponent's defense, the selection from Magdeburg came back into the game and even went into halftime with a lead. In the second half, the Karlsruhe handballers got back into the game better and in the end won narrowly but deservedly with 20:19.

First half overslept

In the second game, the selection from Karlsruhe faced the selection from Goethe University Frankfurt. This opponent was the great unknown, but showed a very good performance in the first game against the co-favorites Konstanz and lost only narrowly. Despite this warning, the team from Baden overslept almost the entire first half and was at times eight goals behind. In the second half, they had adjusted a little better to the opponent, but they did not come closer than the final score of 18:21 to the selection from the Main metropolis.

On a par with the favorites
The final match of the first day of the tournament was against the host and tournament favorite Duisburg-Essen. Against the home team, whose core consisted of players from the 2nd league team TUSEM, they were clear underdogs on paper. Surprisingly, however, the team kept the game open for a long time and never allowed the team from the Ruhr region to pull further away than two goals. Towards the end of the game, the gap was even reduced to one goal and the team had several chances to equalize. In the end, however, the home team managed to fend off the attacks again and again and won with 25:23 goals.

Close defeat at the end

On Sunday, the last game was the Baden duel with the University of Constance. The team from Lake Constance had arrived largely with the team that will provide the framework of the 2nd league team of HSG Konstanz next year and counted among the very hot contenders for the tournament victory. This role was justified in the course of the tournament and had to give up only to the team from Essen-Duisburg scarcely with a goal. Despite the early start time on Sunday morning and a late arrival in the hall, the players of the WG Karlsruhe showed a very strong performance. Stephan Keibl, in particular, repeatedly posed great problems for the Constance cover and provided easy goals from the back. So they led until shortly before the end of the first half and went into the break with an 11:11 draw. In the second half, the selection from Constance tried to decide the game quickly for themselves, but the students from Karlsruhe could not be shaken off by great fighting spirit. Shortly before the final whistle, they had several opportunities to turn the game around, but failed too often in the conclusion, so that the team from South Baden could win the game narrowly with 20:19.

In summary, one can be very satisfied with their own performance due to the strong competition. They managed to keep almost every game open and were only narrowly beaten by the favored teams. It was all the more annoying that some of the top players had to cancel their participation in the tournament or were not cleared by their clubs.

For the WG Karlsruhe played:

Julian Bissinger, Max Mitzel, Christian Fritz, Nikolaj Unser (all TV Sandweier), Michael Förster, Stephan Keibl, Maximilian Vollmer (all SG Heidelsheim/Helmsheim), Niklas Jolibois, Philipp Schollmeyer (both TV Bretten), Finn Stadler (SV Langensteinbach), Max Lange (HSG Hardt), Jan Unser (SG Muggensturm/Kuppenheim), Raphael Kästel (SG HaWei)
Coach: Valentin Futterer