The BVB women’s handballers returned from a four-week Bundesliga break with a 35-28 (20-13) win over BSV Sachsen Zwickau on Saturday evening.

Personnel matters: BVB coach Henk Groener was without left-winger Zoë Sprengers, who had suffered a bruised bone in the return leg of the European League quarter final against Nantes. B-Youth player Lara Egeling, who only recently turned 16, made her first-ever Bundesliga appearance.

The match & analysis: 635 fans gave the team a loud reception at Halle Wellinghofen. The great performances in European competition have significantly increased attendances at home games compared to the beginning of the season. The backdrop seemed to motivate the visitors from Zwickau too. With four minutes played, the score stood at 4-3 to BVB. Zwickau showed themselves to be an opponent that made up for handballing shortcomings with competitive spirit.

That did not suffice in the long run, however. When Lena Hausherr upped the score to 7-5 after 12 minutes and Dana Bleckmann made it 8-5 shortly afterwards, the spell seemed to be broken. The BVB defence, which was as focused as it was attacking and which especially neutralised the Slovenian Ema Hrvatin, certainly played a part in that. The 23-year-old, normally the standout performer and top scorer for her team, was made to look a bystander and scored only two goals in the first period. Lisa Antl and Harma van Kreij did a great job in the central block.

With BVB showing no signs of letting up, they took in a 20-13 advantage at the break. Henk Groener took that as an opportunity to give all the players some minutes after the interval. Especially given the shock BVB suffered at the start of the second period: barely two minutes were on the clock when captain Alina Grijseels sustained an injury to her left hand and was taken to the changing rooms for treatment. She left the court to applause from the stands.

Sophie Moth and Madita Kohorst were both given a run-out in goal after the break. Frida Rønning capped off a great individual display with a goal to make it 21-13. And right-winger Maraike Kusian also repaid the coach’s faith by scoring three goals. Haruno Sasaki made it 25-15 with a seven-metre throw in the 40th minute. Ten minutes later, it was 29-21. With 60 seconds to go before the final whistle, Zoe Stens rounded off a good BVB performance by making it 35-28.

Coach Henk Groener: “That was another great atmosphere in the hall. We increasingly got into the game throughout the course of the first half. The 20 goals before the break laid the foundation for the victory. After that, we made too many simple mistakes and had problems playing seven versus six. But overall I’m satisfied to have made a good start to the final phase of the season following the short preparation period.”

Outlook: The fixture list has plenty in store in the coming weeks. The trip to bottom club Waiblingen next Saturday (22 April) will be followed by some big games away to challengers TuS Metzingen (26 April) and at home to league leaders Bietigheim (29 April).

BVB women’s handball team: Moth, ten Holte, Kohorst; Grijseels (4/2), Kusian (3), Antl (6), van Kreij (3), Ossenkopp (1), Sasaki (3/1), Olsson, Rønning (4), Stens (1), Hausherr (5), Egeling, Bleckmann (4), Garovic (1)