CHICAGO-Solheim: DePaul def MBI 3-1 in the Battle of the Brown Line in the first match of the season.
For the start of the season, the two Chicago NCDA Member Teams clashed in the Battle of the Brown Line today. Named after the mass transit train line that connects the two urban campuses, the match was held at Moody Bible Institute’s classic Solheim Center. Moody had an enthusiastic home court crowd of about 100 people, the norm whether the team plays at DePaul or at home. DePaul brought along about 5 fans, but they’ve always been able to entertain themselves.
The play of the match presented two largely even teams. There was not many violations of any kind, with only a few shot clock violations spread across either team for the duration of the match. While the first point lasted nine minutes and dwindled to a 1 on 1 contest, with DePaul Vice President Brian Van Meter performing a drop and catch to win the point. It was an exciting, constant show of what large scale college dodgeball is meant to be. At the end of the second half, DePaul led 2-0 despite a strong, aggressive Moody contesting for both points.
Returning to the court after halftime and a happy birthday song for AJ Khah [DePaul 7-F] and Jeremy Schambach [MBI 6-A], Moody played with greater intelligence and managed to force a win within ten minutes. For the duration of the entire match, many throws by Moody landed in DePaul bread baskets which made for easy catches. The key to this point for MBI was ball control, smart throws, and a some crucial team catches. DePaul’s strong offensive throws, clutch catches, and constant gameplay led to their eventual victory.
The remaining second half was the most even contest. Moody fought hard, trying to even up the score and almost brought the game into an overtime under the new 6 on 6 rules. DePaul had a few aggressive plays, with sophomore Matthew “Howitzer” Schroeder using his arm to make some key outs. Even though Moody had the number and ball advantage for a good part of third point, the rest of the DePaul remainder made catches and the advantage turned. The final point lasted for the last ten minutes of the match, ending with a DePaul win in the last fifty seconds.
A comment by sophomore Sam Murphy noted simply:
“DePaul Dodgeball remains Undefeated.”
