Leixlip's Mollie Dagg Gearing Up For All Ireland Handball Final On Saturday

She plays Catriona Casey of Cork

Cork’s Catriona Casey and Aishling O’Keefe won their 11th Senior Softball Doubles title on the 1st of June.

This year, they were beaten in the 40x20 Senior Doubles final in a tiebreaker.

Casey is, at this stage, the most successful female handballer of all time, having won practically every major title in the sport in all codes.

But new players have emerged in recent years.

One of those is Saturday's opponent, 22-year-old Kildare right-hander Mollie Dagg from Leixlip.

A student in Waterford IT, she will be playing in her first senior final but what she may lack in experience at this level, she makes up for with athleticism, competitive instinct, will-to-win and an impressive array of shots.

She played doubles with Leah Doyle, who is now a top soccer player in the League of Ireland as a juvenile and minor, winning titles all the way.

Dagg, however, also found time to win an U16 All-Ireland Singles title in the softball code, defeating a strong player in Tyrone’s Mairéad Fox in the final of that competition, which marked her out as a very talented juvenile player.

Coming from the Leixlip club with a track record of developing outstanding female players, she is the latest off the Leixlip production line and she has really elevated her game through hard work and dedication.

In Last season’s All Ireland Intermediate Singles final, Mollie defeated Ciara Mahon who is a previous Senior finalist.

This season, she took a game off Fiona Tully in the All-Ireland 4-Wall Senior Singles quarter-final; while she ultimately lost 11-4 in the tiebreaker, which marked her out as a player of real potential, especially when Tully reached the final.

In the softball code, she defeated Aoife Holden and then enjoyed her first ever 60x30 win over the experienced Aoife McCarthy to book her place in the final.

She is unlikely to be over-awed by the occasion, even if she is going in against one of the greatest handballers ever.

An intriguing decider is in store, with Ballydesmond, Cork’s Casey certainly the favourite to add yet another Celtic cross to her collection.

But Leixlip’s Mollie Dagg – whose results to date have seen her ear-marked as a future senior champion – certainly will put it up to her.