Team handball is at the center of Constance Duverts life. She plays it indoors and on beaches, coaches the game and acts as an ambassador for the sports growth in Californias Bay Area, where she lives and works.As a girl in France, she was a dedicated gymnast for many years until she grew tired of being in a substantially individual sport. There was a team aspect to it, of course, but not as much as she wanted.Youre still the only one on the beam at the end of the day, right? she says.So she switched to team handball, a popular sport in France and Europe that was introduced to the summer Olympics in 1936 and became a permanent part of the Games in 1972.She fell for its speed, high-scoring flow and teamwork. I like working for others and having others work for me, says Duvert, 27.But when she moved to the U.S. 10 years ago -- originally to perfect her English skills -- anybody shed talk to about team handball gave her a blank stare. No one had heard of it. For the next several years, while she pursued her degree in finance at San Jose State and then worked at a big accounting firm, Duvert missed the game.Then in 2013, she was listening to a French radio show about team handball and heard about the U.S. national club championships in Reno. When she investigated, she discovered the San Francisco CalHeat Team Handball Club had sent both a mens and womens team.I was a little bit mad at myself for not finding it before, she says.Ever since, shes been an active part of the club, composed almost entirely of global transplants. Its mens and womens teams compete in tournaments around the U.S. In the three years since finding her way back to the game, her passion for the sport has only grown. She plays the indoor (Olympic) version most of the year but switches to beach handball in the summer. Shes coached at the French high school in San Francisco, helped put on clinics in the area, is working to establish a youth league and was a volunteer at the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games as a delegation liaison for the sport, using her ability to speak fluent French, English and Spanish.Plus, the club for her is more than a place to play. Its a home away from home. Far away from France, Duvert is surrounded by like-minded players from Scandinavia, Spain, Iceland, Germany, Brazil and France. About 50 club members have bonded around the game -- the only problem sometimes is on-court communication.You have to speak to each other a lot, right? she says, laughing. To say, Ive got this one, take her. But everybodys used to playing in their own language, so its quite entertaining.Duvert may be French, but her lifestyle is pure Californian, a blend of freeways, work, handball and surfing. On most days, she commutes 55 miles each way to Santa Cruz for her job as a financial analyst at Plantronics, a communications tech company. She supports the sales team for the Asia/Pacific region in its marketing and sales ventures, a job she calls challenging and exciting.People think Im crazy, she says of the daily drives. Yet she loves having the combination of city living with the atmosphere in Santa Cruz, where her office is steps from the beach. The hours behind the wheel are the dues she pays to keep both.She keeps a surfboard stuffed in the back of her car, and every day her goal is to break away to catch some waves. Shes not always successful, but she averages about three surf sessions a week.Aside from her commute, she drives about 45 minutes from her home to her clubs team handball court in Fremont, where she takes part in 2- to 2 1/2-hour practices two nights a week. The CalHeat club has one of the few handball-specific indoor courts in the U.S. She says shes lucky because shes allowed to have a lot of flexibility in her work schedule, and one day per week she can work from home. On those days, she takes a break to coach team handball at a middle school.Duvert calls team handball a mix of soccer, basketball and dryland water polo. Its a seven-on-seven game (six players plus a goalkeeper for each team) played on an indoor court 66 feet wide and 131 feet long. Players move up the court by passing the ball, dribbling it or taking up to three steps before passing or shooting.There is a line on the court -- an arc almost like a three-point line in basketball -- about 19 1/2 feet from the goal. Offensive players cant step inside the arc, but they can leap over it and fire shots before touching down, resulting in flying, athletic and contested goals. The game moves quickly and goals come often.Its such a cool sport, says Duvert. I dont understand why its not more popular in the U.S., because its high-scoring, fast-paced and a very physical sport. I think Americans would love it.Yet, Americans have mostly ignored it. U.S. teams have not medaled at the Olympics in the sport and have rarely qualified for the Games. In fact, she says some whove seen her club play it -- either the indoor or beach version -- have no idea what it is. Shes heard some compare it to a type of dodgeball or quidditch, the game from Harry Potter. She just laughs.Its an Olympic sport, for Gods sake, she says.When Duvert plays the game, shes not laughing. She prefers defense but also is a good scorer. At this years California Cup tournament in Fremont, her CalHeat team finished second among four teams with a 3-2 record, and Duvert was the second-leading scorer in the event with 15 goals (second to teammate Katherine Aggers 17).What my teammates would say is, Im a good defender, she says. Im not scared of getting hit. Im pretty well known by other teams to have black eyes after tournaments. Everybody remembers me as the black-eye girl if they dont know my name.At this years U.S. club championships, she came away with a black eye and several bruises after helping her team to a fourth-place finish, the highest shes experienced since joining the club.Her playing highlight came in 2013, just after returning to the sport. She was invited to play with the Los Angeles Team Handball Club as the representative of the United States at the womens Central American championships in El Salvador. The U.S. went 4-0, beating teams from Guatemala (twice), Costa Rica and Nicaragua.Even though she isnt a U.S. citizen, she said it was very moving to hear The Star-Spangled Banner in their honor. Because team handball clubs are few in number in the U.S., CalHeat games and tournaments are few and far between. Players have to pay for trips to play opponents in New York, Chicago and western cities such as Portland, Los Angeles and Phoenix, plus the national championships.Now, shes hoping the exposure team handball received at the Olympics will translate to added interest. Shes doing her part to plant the seeds for young people to take it up, so in future years when people hear team handball, they know what it is. Shes signed up to conduct clinics. Shes also working to organize a beach team handball tournament in Santa Cruz next year.Were starting a youth league in the Bay Area because we know this is the only way we can promote the sport, she says.Its a far cry from her experience at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer. She signed up two years ago to be a volunteer at Rio and was stationed at the judo and wrestling venue where she was part of the results team. But almost every free moment was spent at the team handball venue, among rowdy, passionate crowds. There, she was able to cheer on the French men and women to silver medals. Its something Ill never forget, she says. Kyle Connor Jets Jersey .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Josh Morrissey Jets Jersey . 10 Texas A&Ms offence dominated as usual against SMU. http://www.jetsauthentic.com/authentic-bobby-hull-jets-jersey/ . Patrice Bergeron and Daniel Paille scored 20 seconds apart a few minutes after Stamkos was taken off the ice on a stretcher with a broken right leg, and the Bruins beat the Lightning 3-0 on Monday afternoon. Mark Scheifele Jets Jersey . "Four now," Carl Gunnarsson told the Leaf Report proudly following a 5-2 victory over New York on Tuesday night, the clubs fifth straight at home. Logan Stanley Jets Jersey . -- Jonathan Drouin gave Halifax the boost it needed to edge host Sherbrooke Phoenix 3-2 in a shootout in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. NASSAU, Bahamas -- Tiger Woods raised his right index finger in the air when he holed a long bunker shot, his fourth birdie in five holes that put him within two shots of the lead early in the third round Saturday of the Hero World Challenge.He couldnt sustain it, missing too many fairways and too many putts inside 10 feet. He didnt get to the number under par that he thought would give him a chance to contend in his first tournament in 15 months.Turns out even a good finish wouldnt have mattered -- not the way Hideki Matsuyama is playing.Matsuyama, coming off seven-shot victories in his last two tournaments, holed out for eagle with a wedge and kept his mistakes to a minimum for a 7-under 65 to build a seven-shot lead over British Open champion Henrik Stenson (66) and U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson (72).Woods missed three straight putts inside 10 feet and hit into the water on the 18th for a double bogey that gave him a 70, leaving him 11 shots behind. Still, the opening hour was filled with big excitement and higher expectations when he pulled to within two shots of the lead.Jordan Spieth was playing in the group behind, heard the cheer of the holed bunker shot and saw the board with Woods 4 under through 5.Its hard to say hes exceeded any expectations because its Tiger, Jordan Spieth said. But I think hes very pleasantly surprised. Im not sure how hes feeling. But taking off that amount of time, you cant expect to get right into itIm pumped to see what hes doing this week.Woods has made 19 birdies in three rounds of his first tournament since August 2015. Asked what he would have said at the start of the week to hear that he was 8-under par through three rounds, Woods replied, Id have said Id be pretty far behind. And Im right.Matsuyama was at 19-under 197, matching the 54-hole score by Bubba Watson last year at Albany. A year ago, Watson had a two-shot lead. No one is close to Matsuyama, the hottest player in golf over the last two months.I knew somebody was going to go low, but I thought it was going to be probably three, four guys that would post this kind of a score, Woods said. But Hideki is just playing unbelievable golf.Johnson tried to stay with him, but had a hard time keeping it out of the sandy areas off the tee. Matsuyama was two shots ahead when he laid up on the short seventh hole, which played downwind, and then one-hopped his wedge into thhe cup for an eagle.dddddddddddd Just like that, the lead was up to four. And when Johnson kept making mistake, ending with a double bogey on the 18th, the margin only got wider.Brandt Snedeker (69) and Matt Kuchar (71) were at 11-under 205.Matsuyama took notice early when he saw Woods made a brief run up the leaderboard.Only Tiger could take a year-and-a-half off and put up the numbers hes putting up this week, Matsuyama said. I dont care how many strokes Im leading over him, I still worry about him, fear him.That was more respect than reality. The winners of golfs two oldest major championships this year dont sound like they have much of a chance from seven back.Anythings possible, but Im going to have to shoot a really special round, Johnson said.Matsuyama won his first World Golf Championships title last month in Shanghai at the HSBC Champions, winning by seven shot over Stenson and Daniel Berger. He won the Taiheiyo Masters in Japan two weeks later, again by seven shots. He has won three times in his last four events. The only player to beat him in the last two months was Justin Thomas in Malaysia.Thomas was in the Bahamas, but only for a birthday party.Thats exactly what he did at HSBC Champions, and it was not much to do at that time, Stenson said. And possibly, that could be the same tomorrow. Ill just try to focus on my game and well see where it takes us.Woods still captivated the small island crowd, at least with his start. He three-putted for bogey to slow his momentum, and he missed a pair of 6-footers for par early on the back nine. Still, most players said his score was above their expectations given the injuries he had and the rust he accumulated.Woods said he had no expectations at all, though he was surprised about his start. Typically after a long layoff, Woods said he struggles to get going. Now its about finishing a round.Thats the most concerning part of the game, is getting off to I guess halfway decent starts, Woods said. But Ive been into the round early, and Ive been able to build a significant amount of positive shots and go under par early. And unfortunately, I havent been able to keep it going, except for yesterday. I didnt hit the ball that poorly today, but hit bad putts in the middle part of the round. ' ' '