The BVB women’s handballers have won away to bottom club VfL Waiblingen. The Black & Yellows racked up the two points courtesy of a 29-22 (13-13) victory. It was an open game for long spells, with BVB only pulling away late on.

The scenario: BVB had won the reverse fixture 41-28. In addition to captain Alina Grijseels (finger injury), Sara Garovic also missed the return clash in Waiblingen.

The match & analysis: Due to a difficult journey, BVB arrived in Waiblingen only an hour before kick-off and subsequently struggled to get into the game. Initially, the Black & Yellows were not able to take advantage of numerous passing errors and technical shortcomings on the part of the hosts. The score stood at 10-10 around 20 minutes in, with the teams still level at 13-13 at the interval.

Following a bumpy start to the second period too and with Waiblingen 17-14 ahead, coach Henk Groener felt the need to address his team and called his second time-out (37). The balance of play subsequently shifted and Borussia seized control. The Black & Yellows marked more offensively than before, quickly caught up the three-goal deficit and levelled at 20-20 in the 45th minute. The coach’s tactical tweak completely paid off. The BVB defence conceded hardly any more goals and rendered the Waiblingen attack toothless. The Dortmund ladies led 23-20 by the 50th minute and 25-20 five minutes later. By the time the 60 minutes were up, the two points were in the bag courtesy of a 29-22 victory.

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BVB coach Henk Groener: “For 20 minutes, we played the way we wanted to and can. For 40 minutes, we were not consistent enough in defence, too chaotic in attack and gave Waiblingen the feeling there was something in it for them. We were 17-14 down in the 39th minute but then we turned the game around with our offensive defence. The lesson from this game must be that we need to be 100% focused in order to win games like this. What was important is that we won and Metzingen lost in Oldenburg.”

BVB Handball-Damen: ten Holte, Kohorst; Kusian, Antl (1), van Kreij (1), Ossenkopp, Sasaki (3), Olsson, Rønning (6), Stens, Hausherr (2/2), Sprengers (7), Schwarz, Bleckmann (9/3)

Outlook: The campaign continues away to TuS Metzingen on Wednesday 26 April. On Sunday 29 April, BVB will then go up against leaders BBM Bietigheim. Throw-off at the Westpress-Arena in Hamm is at 19:00 CET.