On Thursday, May 7, a group of 36 NE Freeze players, coaches and fans were on their way to Elgin, IL, to compete in the US Team Handball Open National Championships. This was, by far, the largest group the team has sent to nationals in the past 5+ years. The expectations were high and the adrenaline levels were expected to get even higher! Arguably, the NEF teams, were among the most balanced teams at the competition with the ability to threaten the opponents from almost all positions on the field. The women's team, on paper, seemed to be a favorite to win the nationals this year.

Friday was the first day of the competition. The men's team was scheduled to play two games and the women's team had one game later in the day. The first men's game was against Florida Hurricanes. The Hurricanes had a couple of good players, but seemed to be inferior to the Freeze, as a team. Nonetheless, the game was close with a couple of goals' lead alternating between the two teams. The game ended with a tie , and, as weird as it may sound, the two teams had to settle it via a 7m penalty shout-out (soccer style). Matthias Schwalbe and Vilim Pozar scored for the Freeze, and the Freeze's awesome goal keeper Jens Zuther ended it for the Hurricanes by saving two of their shots.

The ending of the second game for the men's team was not as pleasant, though. The team had to face Houston in their second game of the day. Houston had strategically lost their first game so that they wouldn't have to compete in the same pool as NYC's first team. The plan proved to be effective, because they ended up facing NYC in the final and losing to them in overtime, after managing to have a lead of 8 goals during the game! A combination of steady performance by Houston, who were playing their 3rd game of the day, and an under performance from the NEF led to the miserable loss of the Freeze. With the poor structuring of the tournament, combined with Houston's sly move of losing the first game, the NEF men's team was knocked out of the pool competing for the top 8 position.

The women's team, on the other hand, had a great start on the first day. They faced North Carolina in their first game. The team had to win this game, because they were in a tough group with Chicago being the third team of the group. Only two teams were going to make it to the playoff round. NC, pumped up with an 'injection' of national players, thought that they can be a match for the NEF women, since, historically, NC was always a challenge to win against. This was certainly not the case this time around. The NEF women's team crushed NC 25 to 17, to kick-off what looked to be a very promising tournament for them.

The second day started with a relatively easy game for the men's team against Seattle. The team played much more cohesively and seemed to be in good control of the game. They maintained a lead of around 4 goals in the first half and around 8 in the second finishing the game with a 23 to 13 lead.

The women's team was up for a tough game against the former US champion, Chicago Inter, the game was close and the Freeze's women's team looked like a good candidate for winning the national title. the game ended with Chicago winning by only a 2 goal difference 18-16. Once again, the NEF women's team was cohesive on defense and threatening on offense. Despite their loss, they moved on to the semi finals, as the second team from their group. They were going to face the Condors, who led the second group after Houston's loss to the Smurfs.

The women's semi final game was shortly after their game against Chicago. Exhausted from the first highly competitive game of the day, the Freeze were down 0-3 in the first 10 minutes of the game and were catching up for the most part of it. Despite shrinking the Condor's lead to only 1 goal at half time, the psychological advantage the condors had, combined with the fact that they had a less tiring game earlier that day, allowed them to defeat the NEF women 22-20.

Right after the women's game the men's team played the Florida Hurricanes again. A game refereed by two of the worst US league referees who got suspended after the nationals based on their performance in that game. Throughout the game, the refs were throwing 2-minutes at everyone, mostly people on the New England team. At one point, the NEF had only 2 players on the field!! The game overall, was close, again. The Freeze made a last push in the last few minutes ending the game with a lead of 3 goals (24-21). The men's team then moved on to the final match of their bracket, competing with Chicago for the 9th overall position, later that evening.

Chicago had been just as unlucky as the NEF men having been a strong team that got knocked out of the top-8 pool. The game was fairly close with both teams alternating in taking the lead, despite a relatively slow start on offense for the Freeze. However, with 6 minutes left, the NEF were leading Chicago by 3 goals and Chicago had 2 players with 2-minute suspensions. The win, at that point, seemed to be well within reach for the Freeze. Unfortunately, a couple of mistakes on offense, primarily caused by a slippery ball and the lack of coherence among the players on the field, cost the team a lot. During the last 6 minutes of the game, the Freeze failed to score a single goal, received 3 goals and picked up a red card... the end of the game couldn't have been any worse. The game ended with a tie, and, once again, the teams went into a 7m shout-out. Matthias Schwalbe and Adrien Saloui scored for the Freeze, while Nader Shaar missed the second shot for the team. Chicago scored all three shots and won the game with a final score of 21-20.

With the men's team done on the second day, the women's team had one last game on Sunday. They were competing for the bronze medal. The team faced Houston Firehawks in their last game. Despite the clear size disadvantage, the Firehawks managed to win the game and place 3rd in the tournament.

The final results did not meet the club's expectations nor did they reflect the actual level of the club compared to the rest of the US teams. A combination of poor tournament structuring, bad luck and some bad decisions resulted in less-than-optimal results for the New England teams. Nonetheless, the seriousness of the team preparation throughout this season was certainly a great experience and will be a great starting point for the next season.