uk – NCDA

Northern Kentucky to Host First Dodgeball Tournament

This weekend we’re set to see a series of tournaments around the league. We have the East Coast Dodgeball Cup, where James Madison or Penn State are favored to win. We’ve also got the tenth edition of the Grand Valley Gauntlet, featuring three of the top five teams in the country in Michigan State, Cincinnati, and Grand Valley State. Finally, we have the Highland Heights Classic, which features first-time host Northern Kentucky facing off in a quick round-robin series with the University of Kentucky and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

These three teams are hungry to bask in the glory of victory, as wins have been tough to come by all season. In fact, the Wildcats haven’t played a match and the Illini have only played three (winning one). The Norse have played a respectable eleven matches in their inaugural season, and do have a win to their name. But again, two wins all year long between three teams makes for an interesting tournament only two weeks before Nationals. Let’s dig into how each team is set to look this weekend.

Mid-Season Recap: South Region

The fall semester was a great success for the South Region. With two brand new teams competing, it is safe to say southern dodgeball is #back. Here is my full recap of everything you need to know.

By Ethan Lehmkuhl (OSU)

Cat’s Cluster

Mid Season Preview Central Region

As time grows closer to Nationals, let’s take a step back and look at all the Central Region schools and their season so far. The following teams are: University of Nebraska Lincoln, University of Wisconsin Platteville, Concordia University Wisconsin, and University of Kentucky. We asked respondents from each school these questions about how they felt their season has gone and general knowledge about their clubs.

1. Who is your OT6? (please include if they are a captain, rookie, etc).
2. Anything notable go well for you at these tournaments? Anything you need to improve on?
3. Any changes for your team heading into the spring semester?
4. Which tournament are you most excited for this spring?
5. What team would you most like to play?
6. Do you have any rising players on your team you’d like to give a shoutout?
7. How will your team do this spring?
8. Please list 3 players you think should be on AA and womens AA (not including your team).
9. Please list 1 rookie youve been impressed by (not including your team).
10. Please give us your thoughts on 1 team ranked above you and 1 team ranked below you.

BEAST XI Results and Recap

Below are the Results from BEAST XI hosted by JMU on 1/28/2023

This is the first BEAST tournament we’ve seen in years with numerous teams outside the East region, and needless to say, it did not disappoint. We saw upsets, blow-outs, young stars having break out performances, and a rowdy fan atmosphere few tournaments can match. Lets start our team by team breakdown from the top with the best performances we saw in the first tournament of 2023.

Kentucky Invitational Recap

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.

Kentucky Invitational

This Sunday the University of Kentucky (UK) is putting on the Kentucky Invitational and will be hosting: Ohio State University (OSU), Ohio University (Ohio), and Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU). Three regions will be in action and it is great to see the cross regional play! For Kentucky, this will be their first action of the year and we are excited to see them and for hosting. The last time they hosted an event, it was nationals back in 2017. Let’s take a look at the schedule below and highlight the teams.

2022 All-Midway Conference Team

The 2021-2022 season comes to an end and it is time to recognize the individuals that put in the work to make it onto The Midway Conference All-Region team. This year the teams that were included on this list are: University of Nebraska Lincoln, University of Kentucky, and the University of Wisconsin Platteville. This list consists of the top 12 in the conference, voted on by their peers. A special thanks to the players that helped with this. Let’s take a look at the results and see who impressed this year!

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2022 Women’s All-American Team

The 2022 NCDA season was always going to be one with a lot of mystery heading into the year. With a significant hiatus away from the court, questions about which teams and players would step up and push their way to the top remained at large until finally everything came together with a fantastic showing at this year’s Nationals. Since 2017, the NCDA has honored the female competitors who have dedicated time and effort to their craft. These women erased all the doubt, the mystery, and questions through their excellent play and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt they were some of the best athletes college dodgeball had to offer. This list recognizes both the athletic achievements and amazing leadership these women have brought to their respective clubs.

– Hunter Ford, NCDA President

A League of Our Own – Skye Marvin

Dodgettes Navigating a New League

As the 2022 semester comes to an end, one thing can be said for certain about the college dodgeball atmosphere: we are amidst an entirely new league. After practices came to an abrupt end two years ago, college dodgeball returned last fall, and with it came an exciting season of close matches, upsets, rookies, and of course, dodgettes (Shout-out to Akron University’s female players for coining the new term).

This article continues to highlight dodgettes across the league: 2021-2022 season graduates, pre-COVID veterans, and new recruits. Stay tuned to hear how they made their name in the league, and what they are looking forward to in the coming season; in other words, dodgettes navigating a new league.

Kentucky Wildcats Pre-Nationals Spotlight

Leading into Nationals, we look to spotlight as many teams as we can in hopes of shining a bright light on standouts from participating teams. These glow-ups include up to 2 of each team’s standout rookies as well as a handful of core contributing players that have gotten their respective team to where they are going into the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association’s annual finale. Lastly, we get a glance into each participating team’s mindset and expectations going into Nationals.

Clifton Heights Classic

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Previewing the 2022 Clifton Heights Classic

The last tournament before Nationals west of Maryland (who are hosting the next day) will be on March 26th in Cincinnati, Ohio. Yes, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats will be playing host to a trio of teams as we get one last look at a handful of teams this weekend prior to everyone meeting in Kalamazoo, Michigan for our league’s first National Championship Tournament in three long years.

The Bearcats will welcome the Pioneers of Wisconsin-Platteville, the Wildcats of Kentucky, and the Bobcats of Ohio to town for the Clifton Heights Classic, a tournament they plan to make annual as a perhaps last stop event before April’s winner-take-all affair. There are a handful of good storylines to pay attention to this weekend for each team, so let’s take a look.

Cincinnati Super Smackdown Tournament Review

This year, the league is witnessing arguably some of the most balanced skill sets within the top 8 teams that it has ever seen. In a neck and neck dogfight for the top spot in the rankings, there has been quite some uncertainty on where to predict the final standings for each team. With 4 of these top 8 teams competing in this tournament, we were hoping to clear some of that uncertainty, but all we got was more of it.

Each Ohio team, coming off of their own respective dominant performances, was surely excited to play a hot MSU, who just celebrated a huge technical upset over GVSU. Mixed into these matchups are both UK and WMU, both competing in their season inducting tournament. As the league eagerly looked for the results of this tournament to shine some clarity on the true hierarchy of the league, the results this day struck an existential blow to the concept of clarity: Akron defeated MSU, MSU defeated OSU, OSU defeated UC, and UC defeated Akron and MSU. What do we take away from this? Are any of these teams the technical winner? The transitive property rests in an infinite loop, so we asked each team to give us their thoughts on each matchup to help us debug these results.