BEAST VIII Preview

Stat Matchups

Courtesy of THE Hunter Ford

It’ll be a Saturday full of dodgeball with UWP’s Zanderthon Throw-Down, BGSU hosting ODC (preview to come), and JMU’s eight installment of BEAST. Although some (Adam Pfeifer) wish this could’ve been the Inaugural East Coast Dodgeball Cup, Penn State and West Virginia aren’t able to make the trip, so it’ll be the remaining five teams squaring off. This is the largest East Coast tournament that we’ve had this year, so it’ll give everybody a better understanding of how each team stacks up. Here’s the schedule for Saturday’s games:

Storylines to Watch

JMU vs. Towson
Duh

Upset Potential of VCU
They were able to grab an OT win from Kent State at WAR (which technically wasn’t an upset but anyways…), can they do the same against JMU or Towson this weekend?

UVA looks for their 1st win against VCU
Last time these two teams met, VCU had a second-half comeback to beat Virginia in Overtime. Is this the day that UVA gets that first win?

UMD looks to even the Season Series against UVA
UVA currently holds a 2-1 lead this year, but will the Terps be able to tie it up at 2?

10:00am

The first set of games features a pair of intrastate matchups to start off the day. On court 1, we have host JMU and VCU, both of which had great starts to their respective spring semesters. JMU dominated at Penn State’s Rally in the Valley and VCU recently had a solid 2-1 showing at Akron’s WAR. VCU isn’t a team I would sleep on if I were JMU, but I think the Dukes will pull this one off in preparation for their second game. On the Maryland side of things, we’ll have Towson squaring off with their only in-state rival, UMD. Look for Towson to carry over their momentum from WAR and for UMD to knock some rust off in their first game of the semester.

11:10am

During the second slot, we only have one game scheduled, and for good reason. This is obviously the matchup of the day as #2 Towson squares off against #4 JMU. After Towson handled JMU way back in September, the two met in December for a double-header grudge match. The teams ended up splitting the games, with Towson winning the first and JMU the second. This game will absolutely be one to watch, as both teams will come out firing and look to knock each others’ heads off.

12:20pm

Next on the schedule, we have UVA enter the mix as they take on VCU. It’ll be their first tournament of the year so I expect some rust from them as well, but as long as they follow a solid game plan and don’t force too many throws, it’ll be a close game. On the other side of things, we have UMD in another tough matchup against JMU. Although crazier things have happened, I don’t see much upset potential here as UMD will likely be eyeing their last matchup of the day in the next slot of games.

1:30pm

Speaking of UMD’s last matchup of the day, they square off against their rival, UVA. UVA holds a 2-1 advantage over UMD this year, but Maryland currently holds momentum from their win in the most recent matchup between these two teams. Without a doubt, this will be a close game and one that each team will look to pull off in their favor. This of course will be another score to watch as Maryland looks to even the season series. On court 1 during this time, we’ll see Towson and VCU square off in each of their last games of the day. VCU will look to pull off a huge upset, where Towson will look to continue their dominant season.

2:40pm

Lastly, we have a matchup between JMU and UVA. This will be the fourth game for JMU which will be good preparation for Nationals. It will test the depth of the JMU roster and their ability to play deep into tournaments as well as UVA’s ability to hold up as they tire. Overall, I don’t expect too many fireworks out of this matchup, but it will be a good preview of how these teams can hold up as the season labors on.

You can follow these games on the NCDA Instagram as well as Twitter. We’ll also have a google doc with live scoring updates. As for live streaming, we will do everything in our power to make that happen but it may not be available for every game. However, stay tuned to the NCDA Facebook page to see if there’s anything going on!

Each school has a cool looking logo… except for UVA.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.