Spartanburg Herald-Journal
todd.shanesy@shj.com

She says she's too old to play center anymore. All that diving on the hard floor is best left for the kids.

Jennifer Armbruster, a 30-something veteran of the last three Paralympic Games for the U.S. goalball team, has moved to wing and made room for a Nikki Buck, barely out of Paw Paw High School.

"I'm old now," Armbruster said. "We have Nikki."

Not so fast.

The elder had a thing or two to show the young Buck as they went against each other in Saturday's national championship game held at the USC Spartanburg G.B. Hodge Center.

Even after 15 seasons, Armbruster still plays a mean center for the Colorado Bandits. She matched her young apprentice block-for-block until pulling out a 1-0 victory against the Kalamazoo Chaos in double overtime.

Colorado was playing in its 13th straight national title game, the last five coming against Kalamazoo. The Bandits have won in even years this decade, Chaos odd.

With two of the best defensive players on the same court, it seemed as if the game would go forever until somebody scored. Finally, on the first throw of the second extra period, Armbruster zipped a shot diagonally for the right corner and Buck couldn't get enough of her hands on the ball to stop it.

"We know each other well because we're training together in Colorado Springs," Armbruster said. "Nikki knows my strengths and weaknesses, and I know hers. Probably the biggest weakness for any center is thinking. You can think too much on defense. She was probably thinking I would take a hard, straight shot. That's what we tend to do a lot of times. So I decided to go straight across."

Buck insisted that her mind was clear.

"I'm an airhead," she said.

With Buck blocking nearly every shot this weekend, Kalamazoo never gave up more than two goals in winning all six games during pool play and earning the top seed.

"You just keep going and you know that anything can happen at any moment," she said. "It's just the way it goes."

Scoreless, neither team could afford to commit a costly penalty and give the other side a one-on-one chance. With two minutes left in the first overtime, Colorado was called for the only rules violation of the game. Armbruster got whistled for taking more than the allotted 10 seconds, most of which came before a Bandits timeout.

Kalamazoo was awarded a penalty shot, but it was taken by the defensive whiz Buck and not Asya Miller, the team's main goal-scorer. Miller had already rolled two straight and three are not allowed.

Armbruster made the block on Buck.

"I wasn't extremely worried," Armbruster said, "because I knew I wasn't going to face Asya. If she throws that same shot, I don't necessarily stop it. There's no way I can take three steps and make that play on Asya. It's just too fast."

Miller had several near-misses, including one shot that was just wide at the left corner with 37 seconds left in overtime.

After the winning score, Armbruster's guide dog joined the celebration at midcourt and knew which person to congratulate first. Buck and Miller fell into a consolatory hug until Colorado players came over to make it a group embrace, animals included.

Todd Shanesy can be reached at 562-7273 or todd.shanesy@shj.com.

Spartanburg Herald-Journal
todd.shanesy@shj.com

 

She would never admit doing it on purpose, but Nikki Buck sometimes commits penalties just to make things more interesting on defense.

Normal game situations might not be challenging enough.

Buck, a center for Kalamazoo, stopped every shot herself in a 10-0 win Friday against Illinois as the Chaos earned the No. 1 seed for today's semifinals bracket of the National Goalball Championships being held at USC Spartanburg. Kalamazoo is 6-0, not having allowed more than two goals in any game. Playing three games in the G.B. Hodge Center, the Chaos outscored opponents 19-1 in three games Friday.

"We don't let people score," Buck said. "That's our style."

Buck's style is unique. The game is played in silence, but she talks and jokes between shots. While most centers stay on their hands and knees in ready position, Buck stands straight up for the longest time. Sometimes, she even dances. By standing up, she is able to cover sideline to sideline. When the ball is on the way, she moves to it and scoops it up as if she can see perfectly out of those blinding goggles.

Illinois is one of the better teams and qualified to play today as the third seed, but the Tsunami never really came close to scoring on Kalamazoo. They had one chance after Buck was punished for tossing a high ball. On penalty shots, one player must defend a net as wide as the court. That's no problem for Buck. She does that anyway. She made the save with relative ease.

Meanwhile, teammate Asya Miller had seven goals for Kalamazoo to reach 30 for the tournament. Miller and Buck are both on the U.S. team which will compete this fall at the Paralympic Games in Greece.

"When I first started goalball, everybody said I was pretty terrible," Buck said. "Finally, I started playing against the Michigan guys and facing Asya every day in practice. When you play against people like that, you have to get good. Otherwise, they call you names."

Buck probably wouldn't care much. She always has a smile on her face and bounce in her step. When she took an errant shot and hit the scores table by mistake, she put two fists in the air and jumped around in mock celebration.

"I just have a lot of fun," she said. "I love this. I'm the one who keeps the spirits up on the team. I'm even pretty happy when we're losing."

New Jersey wrapped up the fourth seed and will take on Kalamazoo today at noon. Illinois faces second seed Colorado (5-1) in the other semifinal to be played in the auxiliary gymnasium. Colorado's only loss was a 10-0 decision to Kalamazoo.

The women's championship will be played at 4 p.m.

The men still have pool play to finish this morning and their semifinals are set for 1 p.m. That championship is 5 p.m. today. Top teams through Friday were Pennsylvania (6-0), New Jersey (5-1), WMU (3-2-1), Utah (3-1-2) and Kalamazoo (3-1-1).

Todd Shanesy can be reached at 562-7273 or todd.shanesy@shj.com.

 

It was a comeback that was eventually denied.

The highest scoring game of the first day of the National Goalball Championships, held at USC Spartanburg, came down to the final 10 seconds.

The Tallahassee (Fla.) Collision were down 10-5 to open the second half, but rallied to tie their game with NWABA (North West Association of Blind Athletes from Vancouver, Wash.) 14-14 with 47 seconds remaining following a goal by Donte Mickens.

On NWABA's next throw, player/coach Murray Elbourn scored, which was immediately followed by Bobby Blackmon's score.

A highball penalty on the Collision gave NWABA a chance to win in the final 10 seconds and Joe Hamilton made the most of the opportunity, as he scored for the 16-15 win.

HIGH ROLLERS: Aysa Miller of the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Chaos leads female goal scorers with 19 goals in three games. She is followed by New Jersey's Lisa Banta, who has 18 in four games, and Colorado Bandits' Jennifer Armbruster, who has 13.

On the men's side, Mickens has scored 24 times, including 13 in one game. The Pennsylvania Venom's John Mulhern has 17 goals, as does NWABA's Joe Hamilton, while Kalamazoo's Carl Love has 15 scores.

ROLLING TEAMS: Only the Chaos is undefeated in women's round-robin play after Day 1. They have nine points, but are closely followed by the Illinois Tsunami with seven points. New Jersey and the Colorado Bandits each have six points.

In men's action, the Pennsylvania Venom and New Jersey teams are undefeated after three games and have nine points. The Kalamazoo Hurricanes are in second with seven points.

The top four teams, by points, after the round robin is complete advance to the semifinals on Saturday. The semifinal winners play for the championships on Saturday also.

Jason Gilmer can be reached at 562-7247

or jason.gilmer@shj.com.

 

Current stop -- Spartanburg.

Future stop -- Athens, Greece.

All eight members of the United States Paralympics women's goalball team are in town this week competing in the United States Association of the Blind Athletes (USABA) National Goalball Championships.

The only problem -- they aren't playing together. This week the players are facing each other as members of their state's teams.

"It's good, because the talent is spread out," said Colorado Bandits player Jennifer Armbruster, who is also on the U.S. team. "We're able to get better playing better competition."

The American team is made up of six members -- Armbruster, New Jersey's Lisa Banta, California's Jessica Lorenz, Kalamazoo's Asya Miller and Nikki Buck and Illinois' Robin Theryoung -- and two alternates -- Illinois' Jaclyn Barnes and Lindsay Sloan.

Six of the nine male participants in the Paralympics are also at the event.

The female team leaves on Sept. 9 on a chartered flight with other athletes to Greece but will spend 10 days there without playing a game. They will practice and walk around the city checking out the sights.

They will live in the Olympic Village with other athletes and play their games on the handball court.

Expectations for the team are high as it goes into the tournament as the No. 1 team in the world and it hasn't lost a match in three years.

"There's always a target on your back when you're the United States. Now that we're No. 1 it's even bigger," said U.S. coach Ken Armbruster, who is Jennifer's father. This will be his third trip to the Paralympics.

Four of the girls live together and train at the Olympic complex in Colorado Springs. The other two full team members will join them next week.

"We used to only see each other at tournaments, now it's everyday," Banta said.

Teammates for a while, this week they are opponents. But friendships aren't tossed away because of their competitive nature.

After games and while waiting for their next match, the girls can be seen talking and joking with one another. Being foes is familiar territory.

"These girls play against each other all year," Ken Armbruster said.

"I think this is a challenge," Banta said of the girls playing with their state teams. "When you separate us (from the U.S. team) you have a whole different role."

But this helps, as the girls work on different aspects of their game. Banta said that instead of focusing on shooting, they can work on the defensive end and then it all comes together when they join forces for their country.

Jason Gilmer can be reached at 562-7247 or Jason.gilmer@shj.com.