The 2012 MSU Invite will be hosted at IM West on MSU’s campus from 11am-6pm on November 4th. Joining the host school will be in-state rival CMU, last year’s top team in the regular season in Kent State, court jesters Depaul, a tough team in Bowling Green, and upstart Moody Bible. The pools have been set and a preliminary schedule has been created as well.
In Pool A (played in the Sports Arena) will be the Spartans, BGSU, and Depaul. MSU is the two time defending champion of the tournament, and would love to make it a three-peat. Bowling Green has some power arms to go along with some shifty players and catchers, and while they haven’t beaten the Spartans since the 2007-2008 season, they always put up a tough fight. In fact, State usually drops the first point against the Falcons, which means that if BGSU could continue this trend their could be an upset in the making. The third team in the pool is Depaul, who is currently 1-0 on the young season. They beat rival Moody Bible 3-1 in the season’s opening match, and the Blue Demons could definitely pull out some wins in this tournament if they play to win. Depaul is a regular at the MSU Invite, so it’s nice to see them come back once again.
The Pool A Schedule:
11am- Michigan State vs Bowling Green
12:15pm- Bowling Green vs Depaul
1:30pm- Michigan State vs Depaul
Pool B (played in Gym 3) features the top two teams from the last two regular seasons and also a team who has been making strides in its first two years in the league. The headlining team is the Chippewas of Central Michigan, who won the 2011 National Tournament, but this will be a new look CMU team without many of its veteran players. However, they still have many of their top tier talent left and should still be able to catch almost anything. Last year’s number one team in the regular season is in a similar situation to CMU due to the loss of leadership and talent up top, but Kent State has already beaten a tough Ohio State team this year. The Golden Flashes could be the number one seed again at Nationals as they load up their schedule once again this season, and the MSU Invite will be their second tournament in as many weeks. The Archers of Moody Bible may have lost their first game at home to Depaul, but they were in it all the way and could easily pull out a couple wins in the tournament. They have new leadership this year, but they still have some firepower and could possibly sneak up on either CMU or Kent State.
The Pool B Schedule:
11am- CMU vs Kent State
12:15pm- Kent State vs Moody
1:30pm- CMU vs Moody
After the preliminary rounds of games the first place teams from each pool, second place teams, and third place teams will all play each other.
2:45pm- Pool A 2nd Place vs Pool B 2nd Place (Sports Arena), Pool A 3rd Place vs Pool B 3rd Place (Gym 3)
4:00pm- Pool A 1st Place vs Pool B 1st Place
The MSU Invite could be one of the most exciting tournaments of the fall, with the possibility of some big rivalry matches and some unique matches of teams who rarely play each other.