Rectification- Recap

At the Rectification last Sunday, March 25, several teams went head to head to show off their skills and show who was the best.   The results of the matches were surprising at times with some very competitive matches.  The following teams that took part in this tournament were: GVSU, CMU, SVSU, MSU, GVSU Alumni, and UWP.  Here are the results for the ranked matches for the day.

GVSU Def UWP 7-1

It is truly cool to see so many current and former players of GVSU squad.

SVSU def MSU 3-2

CMU def GVSU 5-2

MSU def UWP 5-2

GVSU def SVSU 4-1

CMU def UWP 6-1

CMU def SVSU 3-2

Captains thoughts- I interviewed the following captains and alumni about the tournament and here are their responses.

Erik Zander- Which team impressed you the most and why?

Dylan Fettig- I was running around the whole time so I didn’t get to see a whole lot from any team. I was really impressed with how tough MSU played SVSU though. I reffed that game and thought it was going to go into overtime. MSU has been steadily improving all year and I expect them to turn some heads at nationals.

Brandon Meisel-  Some might expect me to say that CMU impressed me the most this weekend, seeing how they beat us. This however is not the case. CMU has been pretty consistent in terms of how well they play, and it is expected that they will play well at all tournaments, so the fact that they played well shouldn’t be misinterpreted as impressive. The team that did impress me a little this weekend was MSU. Holding SVSU to a one point win, and easily handling UWP shouldn’t go un-noticed.

Rebecca Shappell-Honestly, Central continues to impress me. They’re a top notch team and after seeing bits of them playing this weekend reaffirmed how I feel about them. They not only won, they handled teams with ease.

Kevin Bailey- Easy question.  Central Michigan was by far the most

The look of champions right there!

impressive.  They showed the greatest ability all weekend, and were especially impressive at gaining and maintaining momentum in their games against GVSU and SVSU.  CMU positioned themselves as the favorites for Nationals after Sunday’s performance.

Kenny Mize- The team that impressed me the most was GV, after coming off a poor performance against CMU they came out ready to play against us and managed to take the decisive moments in the points to beat us.

Michael Riley- For a team that impressed me the most I’d have to say SVSU. We played them in our last game of the day and they brought the intensity and competition as always. The league always says they step up in the second semester and they definitely have.

Louis Thompson-  I would say Michigan State impressed me the most out of all the teams. The intensity and organization that they brought really caught me off guard.


EZ- If you could play one team next weekend who would it be and why?

This is one classy team picture!

DF- I would say either CMU or SVSU. CMU because I think GV had a bad game against them and would do much better after a week of practice. SVSU because I want to see them play GV as the first match of the day. They always start the day with so much energy but for some reason as the day wears on they seem to settle down and their level of play drops as well.

BM- If we could play any team next weekend, it would definitely be CMU. The only way to get better is to play high level competition, and they have proven to be high level competition.

RS- I would love a Saginaw rematch. We look COMPLETELY different than when we played them last month in Ohio & I feel like if we had a few of our bigger players we could’ve pulled out the win.

KB- As an alumni, this doesn’t really apply to me.  But I’ll go with Michigan State.  Our alumni match with them was fun, and I (along with some other alumni) switched sides to play with MSU for the second half, to help their young squad learn some of our strategies.  They have a great attitude, and plenty of potential.

KM- I would want to play CMU the game was closer and we came ready to play. Come nationals when we play them again, we will be at full force and they better be ready.

MR- What do you mean if i could play one of them? We just did. But if you mean cause I realllly love playing against them I’d say GV because to be the best you have to play the best.

LT-  If I could play one team it would also be MSU, I feel like we didn’t give them the challenge that I know we can. I also feel like if we had our full starting 12 against them it would be a game that would come down to the wire instead of them beating us down.

Edwin when are you going to smile in these pictures?

EZ– Which game was the most entertaining and which match would you have liked to seen and why?

DF-  MSU vs SVSU was very entertaining. It was back and forth action and both teams were heated from the start.  I would have liked to see MSU vs UWP.  Every time I looked over at that court it looked like the points were close. I also missed almost all of CMU vs SVSU until the last point with 4 minutes left, where I saw Riley yelling at his team to stop making risky plays and letting the SV back into the game.

BM– The most entertaining game for us was playing our own alumni. Seeing old friends, and getting to hit them in the mouth with rubber balls is always fun.

RS- I wish I could have seen all of the CMU/GVSU match as well as play in the alumni/MSU match which I had to ref during. Personally, I feel the most fun match was our UWP match. I liked those guys and their attitudes on the court.

KB- Most entertaining game had to be MSU vs. SVSU.  Michigan State took the first point in the match and really gave SVSU a scare.  It eventually was a 2-2 game late in the second half before SVSU closed it out.  All in all, that was an interesting game, and one that was not really expected to be so close.  I would have loved to see more of the GVSU vs SVSU game.

KM- I enjoyed watching the CMU and GV game because it was interesting to see the weakness of a GV team. To see the Lakers on their heels for the whole game I was shocked. The game I didn’t get to watch was UWP and MSU, I would have liked to see the talent gap as my thought was UWP was not as talented as their Ranking and the score suggested.

MR-  The most entertaining game was again our game vs SV. The constant back and forth and trash talk always cracks me up and adds an extra element to our games. I would’ve loved to watch the SV vs MSU game as I heard it was a close one! I was “reffing” at the time and wasn’t able to catch it. But excited to see MSU continue their rise.

LT- For us, I feel like the most entertaining game was when we played GVSU, although the score didn’t really show it, I feel like we played them a lot closer than anybody would have expected going into the tournament. And if I could’ve seen any game I would’ve chosen the CMU V. GVSU game simply because they are the two top teams in the country and I think our team can learn a lot from how those teams play the game.

EZ- Any players from any of the teams stand out to you and why?

DF- The tall blonde kid on MSU caught like 5 of GVSU alumni. I think he also got hit in the head but he went right back in and kept catching!

BM-  The player that stuck out to me the most was #35 on UWP (Edwin Cavillo). Although he left himself wide open to get hit a lot, the dude had an arm and you made sure to pay attention when he was throwing.

RS- I mean, I feel like the normal stars of each team were out and showing their arms/skills this tournament, however Jake Bruce from SVSU had a great game against us. He’s going to be a great player for SVSU the next two years

KB- Mudge from CMU really impressed me this weekend.  He has a much better arm than some may realize.  MSU rookie Brent Weakland also gets a shout out here.  He has continued to improve, and reminds me a lot of former GVSU star Anthony Incrocci based on his style of play.

KM- Payton from MSU, I told him after the game that 3 years from now he will likely have racked up a few all-americans and probably a MVP.  Nick Hazergian: Noe from MSU played like his old self and looked like the game changer he used to be.

MR- For players that stood out there were two big winners. Eric Nelson, the CMU rookie, went absolute huge with a catch-kill-catch combo to win us the second point against GV when we were down in numbers. Kenny Mize is my other standout player as he was making ridiculous catches against us in our final game. I’d also like to mention Payton Shuster as I heard he had a great game against SV and is an exciting player to watch develop.

LT-  The one player that stood out the most to me was #43 on MSU, his power combined with throwing lefty is something that isn’t seen too often.

EZ- Any other thoughts you would like the league to know?

DF- CMU would have been better off losing their game against GVSU. They just lit a fire under our butts and it’s going to give us motivation to put in extra effort at practice from now until nationals.

KB- CMU once again is going to be #1 in the power rankings.  They came out hot in the game against GVSU, and they kept the momentum for the entire first half.  If these two teams match up at Nationals, the squad that wins the

They are coming for you CMU & GVSU.

first point will most likely take the game.  CMU looks a lot more prepared to do that at the moment.  SVSU didn’t do as well as I expected.  Nick Hazergian is an MVP level player, but overall, SVSU just doesn’t have the depth or offensive power to beat CMU or GVSU.  Michigan State continues to improve.  Noe Galaviz had himself a solid tourney, especially in the points they won over SVSU.  I only saw a little bit of UWP, but once again, props to them for making the trip to play a bunch of Michigan schools.

KM- As far as thoughts, I think this weekend showed that any team can win the national title. CMU and GV can beat each other, MSU is stepping up and SV are right up there in contention. Couple that with Towson and JMU on the east coast and we are wide open on who will win the championship.

MR- Don’t poke the bear.

LT- Even though we may not have shown it at GVSU, Platteville still isn’t somebody that can be counted out, I feel as though our top 12 can compete with a lot of teams in this league.

My thoughts

Right now, CMU is the best team in Michigan in terms of overall all-round talent.  They have several throwers and multiple players that can catch.  They made it look easy against GVSU.  GVSU is the most strategic team and that is part of why they have had success this year.  Not the strongest team, but play the game right and do not make to many mistakes.  SVSU will have to step it up another notch if they want to beat and take down CMU or GVSU.  MSU and UWP benefited the most from this tournament as they got to play an opponent that was of similar skill level.  This allowed them to learn a lot from this game which will carry over into the other games.  MSU has good leadership which they will need when it comes time for nationals.  With Platteville, I was happy with the results for the day. My teammates found that we needed to stop playing scared and play our game and we were fine and could compete.  On our spring break and having the majority of our freshmen get this experience makes feel a lot better about nationals.  We will correct the mistakes and I feel we will be able to compete with the top teams in the league.

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