ASU Handball Club Rallies from Third to Win Doug Randolph Cup for Second Year Straight

SAN ANGELO, TX - The Angelo State University Handball Club staged a late comeback to clinch the 2025 Doug Randolph Cup at the recent tournament held this year at Lubbock Christian University.

The Doug Randolph Cup competition debuted last year at the 2024 Aggieland Classic tournament in College Station, and the ASU Handball Club has won it both years. It featured a round-robin format with the ASU team facing off in head-to-head matchups against teams from the University of Texas, Texas A&M University and Missouri State University.

Each head-to-head contest consisted of one women's singles match, one men's singles match, one women's doubles match and two men's doubles matches - with each match consisting of two games to 15 points. As such, 30 points were available in each match, with a total of 150 points available in each head-to-head contest. The team with the highest points total after its three head-to-head contests was declared the Doug Randolph Cup champion.

To start the tournament, the ASU Handball Club outscored Texas A&M, 150-43, but then dropped its second contest to MSU, 120-115. Heading into its final contest against UT, the ASU team was in third place, but then scored 138 points to dominate UT and vault into first place to secure the championship.

The final standings were:

• 1st Place: Angelo State - 364 points
• 2nd Place: Missouri State - 349 points
• 3rd Place: Texas A&M - 344 points
• 4th Place: Texas - 190 points

Individually for ASU:

• Taigan Rivers went 3-0 in women's singles (90 points)
• Jacob Mitchell & Dylan Whitley went 3-0 in men's doubles (90 points)
• Kinzi Jo Leon & Joanna Pauline Gato went 3-0 in women's doubles (90 points)
• Israel Lopez Jr. & Cade Whitley/Will Jost went 1-2 in men's doubles (54 points)
• Austin Colwell went 0-3 in men's singles (40 points)

The ASU Handball Club is coached by Aoife Holden and Diarmuid Mulkerrins, graduate students from Ireland in the coaching, sport, recreation and fitness administration program.

"The players played brilliantly throughout the three rounds," Holden said. "From the first point on Friday to the last point on Saturday, they were determined and fought hard. In this tournament, every point matters, so you have to be fully focused at all times, which is difficult. I was very impressed with our players' performances."

"Retaining a title is a tough challenge, especially against such strong competition," Mulkerrins added. "Being in third place going into the last round, I was very impressed with our players' composure while they dug deep and came back. The title wasn't won until the very last singles game. We are very proud of them."

Rivers (San Angelo) is an exercise science major, Mitchell (San Antonio) is a commercial aviation major, Dylan Whitley (Tioga) is an intelligence and analysis major, Leon (Austin) is an animal science major, Gato (Big Spring) is a nursing major, Lopez (San Angelo) is a kinesiology major, Cade Whitley (Tioga) is a border and homeland security major, Jost (San Angelo) is a health science professions major, and Colwell (San Angelo) is a mechanical engineering major. All of them were also part of the ASU Handball Club's national championship team in February.

The Doug Randolph Cup competition is named in honor avid handball player Doug Randolph, founder of the Lubbock-based Randolph Foundation for Higher Education Inc. In December 2020, the Randolph Foundation awarded ASU a $1 million grant to endow the Dr. Warren Simpson Excellence Fund for Handball that supports the ASU Department of Kinesiology and the ASU Handball Club. Simpson is a retired faculty member who founded the ASU Handball Club.