This Sunday in Kalamazoo, Western Michigan will host the fourth Dr. Peter Broe Classic. In attendance will be a mix of title contenders, up-and-coming clubs, and out of region teams. The day will include some intriguing matchups and opportunities for various teams to head into Thanksgiving with some serious momentum. The tournament will be broadcast live the the NCDA Dodgeball YouTube Channel. Here is the schedule of games for the event:
Below is a breakdown of each participating team, followed by some marquee matchups to watch.
For this preview, it’s just going to be me sharing my predictions for the Grand Valley Gauntlet, so if you don’t care what I have to say, this is your queue to leave. With that being said, this should be a great tournament all around, as it features 3 of the top 5 teams in the current standings (GVSU, MSU, UC).
Michigan State holds up three fingers after capturing their third-consecutive Michigan Dodgeball Cup title. PC: Kris Haas
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:
This week the five college dodgeball teams from Michigan will make their annual descent on East Lansing, Michigan, and compete for the Michigan Dodgeball Cup. This tournament has a long, storied tradition in the league and usually serves as a good barometer as to who are contenders and pretenders as the league inches closer to April. Historically, the team that wins the Michigan Dodgeball Cup has found itself in the driver’s seat of the National Title race.
With all that said, this year is looking to once again be a two-horse race at the top. Michigan State University is looking to defend not only their MDC Title but also their National Title, while Grand Valley State University is looking to play spoiler and bring both trophies back to Allendale. You don’t often hear the Lakers labeled as potential spoilers, but this is the first time in recent memory that neither one of the trophies (MDC, National Championship) are in the possession of the 11-time National Champions.
This past weekend saw the completion of what will likely be the largest pre-nationals tournament of the semester. Don’t worry if you missed any action because we’ve got you covered with a full recap below.
A new semester has come upon us, and with that, the NCDA will return to the corner of Ted Boyd Drive & Summit Street in beautiful Kent, Ohio for the first time since 2019. This tournament will be held on Sunday, January 28th, and will feature 10 teams spanning from East Lansing, Michigan, all the way down to Harrisonburg, Virginia, as well as 7/8 of the Ohio teams, and the Nittany Lions of Penn State. This tournament is putting some big names up against each other as we will see a total of EIGHT top-10 match-ups as this will certainly show who are the contenders versus the pretenders. Down below, we have the schedule, the links to each YouTube channel that will be streaming, and previews for all 10 teams attending.
