Saturday, September 27 kicked off dodgeball in the southern region in a historic matchup between Georgia’s two schools. This year, however, the NCDA welcomed the University of Alabama (Bama) into the league as the Crimson Tide faced Georgia Southern University (GSU) and the University of North Georgia (UNG). Here’s a look at how each match-up went.
EAST LANSING, MI – Michigan State University was victorious on Saturday at the Michigan Dodgeball Cup (MDC), earning their third consecutive title at the annual event. The Spartans rolled through their early opponents, beating Central Michigan (6-0 win), Western Michigan (6-0 win), and Saginaw Valley State (6-0 win), before a clash with Grand Valley State (3-2 win).
With the 4-0 record on the day, MSU moved to 17-2 on the season, and 5-2 against Top-10 opponents. The Spartans maintained control of the Michigan Region, winning their third-straight MDC Title as mentioned above, and they firmly positioned themselves as serious National Title contenders. All-in-all, a solid weekend for those in East Lansing.
For the other schools in attendance at MDC, it was a bit more of a mixed bag. Central Michigan (0-4 at MDC) wasn’t able to secure a victory at the event, but had some bright spots, including a near comeback against WMU. While we’re on WMU, the Broncos didn’t have their best day, losing a close match to SVSU and finishing 1-3 overall. Saginaw Valley State picked up the key win over Western to stay at the 3-spot in the region, but otherwise had a subpar day, unable to truly hang with the ‘Big Two’ in Michigan. Lastly, Grand Valley State failed to hang on to a halftime lead against MSU for a third straight season, extending their title-less MDC streak to 3 seasons (the previous record was… 1). Let’s dive into each of these teams before getting back to the Spartans, and a big picture view after the 2024 Michigan Dodgeball Cup:
Continue reading “Tournament Recap + Big Picture Outlook following the 2024 MDC”On February 4th, Cleveland State University held the Viking Royale. Teams in attendance were Cleveland State University, Miami University (OH), Western Michigan University, Saginaw Valley State University, Kent State University, Akron University, and Ohio State University. Below are the results for the day.
On October 23rd, four teams from three different regions made the trip to Lexington, Kentucky to compete in the Kentucky Invitational. The teams in attendance were Ohio University, Ohio State University, Saginaw Valley State University, and University of Kentucky. Every team played against the other three teams for some exciting cross-regional play.
Continue reading “Kentucky Invitational Recap”Scores from Maryland Madness
Towson def UMD 2-1
Penn St def UVA 4-2
Penn St def UMD 4-1
JMU def Towson 4-3 (OT)
JMU def UVA 3-2 (OT)
Penn St def Towson 3-1
Penn St def JMU 5-2
UMD def UVA 2-1
Scores from Towson Throwdown
Towson def UVA 3-1
JMU def Towson 3-1
UMD def UVA 3-1
JMU def UMD 4-0
JMU def UVA 5-0
Continue reading “Towson Throwdown and Maryland Madness Recap”At the Sagnasty Classic, Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU), Grand Valley State University (GVSU), and Western Michigan University (WMU) competed in several good games this past weekend. The records for the day were: GVSU 3-0, SVSU 1-2, and WMU 0-2. Below are the scores from this tournament:
Continue reading “Sagnasty Classic Recap”Ten teams made the trip to Ohio University on October 1st to play in the John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza III. We saw a few teams make their first appearance of the season including last year’s runner up, Michigan State, while others were looking to improve on past performances. Of the 18 matches played only one ended with a single point difference. What does this say about the teams this season? We’ll go team by team and breakdown what these matches showed us and what to look for in coming tournaments. Also, stay tuned for the Women’s Tournament Recap article.
On October 8th the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (UWP) battled it out at the Cornhusker Clash in a double header. UNL was able to come out on top on both matches with finals scores of 7-1 and 4-3.
There’s never a dull weekend in Columbus. Last Sunday’s Buckeye Showcase proved to be the most exhilarating season opener yet (and arguably the most exciting thing to happen in Columbus that weekend). Ohio State hosted 5 schools for the third annual Buckeye Showcase, and my oh my, what a day of close matches. Obviously, teams can change a lot between the start of the season and Nationals, but if these teams continue to play like they did at the Showcase, the Ohio Region very well could claim the National Title this season.
If you weren’t at this event, the above claim probably doesn’t hold a lot of weight – there’s a lot to unpack. Let’s go team by team to evaluate what we saw and speculate the future of these teams.
Continue reading “Buckeye Showcase Recap”We expected a weekend full of quality dodgeball as Akron hosted their 5th annual iteration of The War. What we witnessed, however, was frankly a lot of lopsided matches. Certain teams we anticipated to have great performances came in as advertised. Others left a lot to be desired, and will hope to bounce back strong if they play again before Nationals, or else they will be chewing on those hard truths about the way their team played for the next 5 weeks.
With that being said, there is a lot to unwrap, and a lot to be said about what we saw from each team, whether they performed well, poorly, or somewhere in between. Let’s go team by team and evaluate what we saw.
Continue reading “The War V Recap”
17 years.
That’s how long it had been since the last time Michigan State University’s dodgeball club members could call themselves Michigan Dodgeball Cup Champions. 17 years of heartbreak. 17 years of what-ifs. 17 years of being the butt of jokes from rival Michigan teams when February rolled around.
What started as a two-team event highlighting the rivalry between Michigan State and Delta College, turned into arguably the most historic regular season event in collegiate dodgeball. Back in 2005, when the Spartans were victorious over Delta College by a score of 8-3 in the Inaugural Michigan Dodgeball Cup, nobody could’ve foreseen the suffering the program would go through at this particular event over the next 17 years.
Continue reading “Improbable Comeback Gives Michigan State First Michigan Dodgeball Cup Title since 2005”Below are the results of the preferential election for the 2020/2021 NCDA Rulebook, select Policies, and 2021 Executive Board. The Rulebook is scheduled to be released prior to the start of the 2021 Season.
Here were the final results for Nationals 2021 selection:
Ohio State University – 1st Round
Ohio State University has retained the right to host Nationals 2021.
Saturday, February 22, 2020 was a hectic day for college dodgeball. In total, 18 schools were in action on Saturday, spread across 3 separate tournaments: Ohio Dodgeball Cup, BEAST, and Viking Cup. It was a day full of awesome games and interesting results, with 28 total matches taking place throughout the day. There is certainly a lot to unpack after Saturday, so to break things down a bit, let’s take a look at the biggest ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ from last weekend.
Before we get to the fun stuff, here are the results from the weekend:
…And here is your current top 20 Gonzalez Standings:
Now onto the winners and losers from Saturday:
Western Michigan
It was a historic day for the Western Michigan University Dodgeball Club on Saturday, as the Broncos earned their first two wins ever. WMU beat Ball State 5-3, then followed it up with a 5-2 win over Kentucky in which the Broncos came back from a 2-1 halftime deficit to score four-consecutive points en route to a huge victory. Along with Captain Peter Broe leading the way, WMU had some strong consistent play from Ryan Allor and Randy Santana-Jiminez as well as some clutch performances by Hue Pettway and Evin Cooper. Saturday was a great day for WMU, and a stepping stone for their program moving forward. Western’s commitment to consistently facing tough competition in the Michigan Region is starting to pay off, and they are moving up the rankings because of it. This team has an exciting future.
EAST LANSING, MI: For the 6th-consecutive season, the Michigan Dodgeball Cup will be staying in Allendale Michigan. The Grand Valley State Lakers won the 16th Annual MDC with a 4-0 record on the day, including an overtime thriller against Michigan State. The Spartans were able to win each of their other games, going 3-1 at MDC, making it the first time since 2005 that MSU had a winning record at the event. Central Michigan (2-2), Saginaw Valley State (1-3), and Western Michigan (0-4) were the other three teams in attendance, and each showed some good things throughout the day. Below are the final results from the tournament:
MSU def SVSU 3-2
CMU def WMU 5-2
GVSU def MSU 3-2 (OT)
SVSU def WMU 5-1
CMU def SVSU 3-1
GVSU def WMU 6-0
GVSU def CMU 4-1
MSU def WMU 6-1
MSU def CMU 4-0
GVSU def SVSU 5-0
It has been one heck of a fall semester for the NCDA, thanks in no small part to the Ohio Region. The region has continued to grow and yield better results year after year, and we don’t see that trend dropping off any time soon. Most of the teams who’ve competed have winning records, and also own impressive out of region wins! Honestly, this should come as no surprise. As the region continues to grow, they continue to host the most tournaments, with, on average, the most teams in attendance. In fact, while Ohio as a region has hosted 5 tournaments averaging 14.4 matches, the East Coast Region has only hosted 3 tournaments averaging 5.67 matches, and the Michigan Region has also only hosted 3 tournaments averaging a mere 4.67 matches (doubleheaders, forfeits, and B-team matches were excluded from the tally). So while teams from separate regions are of course attending some of each others’ tournaments, it’s pretty easy to see how the Ohio Region is quickly growing in skill & relevancy.
If we’re being frank, from top to bottom, the Ohio Region might be the best in all of college dodgeball. Don’t believe us? Here are the inter-regional records for each region through the end of the fall semester (not including B-team matches & forfeits):
East Coast: 8-9
Michigan: 12-9
Midway: 1-9
Ohio: 29-13
South: 2-9
Continue reading “Ohio Region – Fall 2019 Semester Recap”
