The #4 Michigan State Spartans (9-3-1) took the four hour drive to icy Chicago, IL, to play in the 2013 Chicago Dodgeball Open. They would face the #9 Moody Archers (2-3-0), #17 Nebraska (0-4-0), and #3 James Madison (9-2-1). MSU brought only 14 of an allowed 20 players, making it a tough go for them, but they were able to go 2-1, beating Moody 8-0, Nebraska 11-0, but losing 2-1 to JMU.

The first game was against Moody, and the Archers only brought 11 players themselves. Without some of their star players, MSU would rally and get some clutch catches, along with some accurate throws to get kills in transition and along the baseline and jump out to a 4-0 lead at the half. They picked up the next point quickly in the second half and then began to play around, not wearing on their arms and just having fun. Jake Ochoa (MAD #3-C) had some great catches for the Archers, but it wasn’t enough as they were out caught and out thrown by the Spartans. MSU is now 4-0 against Moody, scoring 27 points while giving up 0.

Last year, Michigan State rolled over the Huskers 14-0 at the CDO. This year was much of the same, as the more athletic MSU team was able to dictate the pace and force Nebraska into tough situations. MSU caught like crazy, and they were able to pick off unprotected Nebraska players. MSU would win the game 11-0, although the game was called early.

The Spartans wanted payback on the Dukes for their loss at Nationals 2012 pool play, but they wouldn’t get it today. JMU would use the rebounding advantage created by the odd gym (one side had a wall near the court, the other had a nook where the balls would die and not rollback) and they kept MSU on their baseline. With the Spartans playing too much defense and not enough offense, JMU was able to pick off Spartan after Spartan in the first half. They took a 2-0 lead into the half, despite the best effort of the MSU players. State would bounce back however, and score the next point in a hard fought back and forth battle, in which John Luzenski (MSU #12) got a clutch catch that triggered a slew of clutch plays by MSU, and a final kill by Mike Van Ermen (MSU #6). There was only 8 minutes left on the clock after that point, but MSU wouldn’t roll over. They knocked JMU down to five players in about 3:30, but gave up all the balls to do so. With JMU having 10 balls, they could use their stellar defense to block all the solo throws the Spartans would do. MSU eventually whittled JMU to three players, but the buzzer would end on the game, meaning a JMU victory.

Overall it was a good experience for the Spartans, giving valuable playing time for some players as well as being a fun trip to Chicago. Michigan State next plays at SVSU on January 27th, and then plays at home for the Michigan Dodgeball Cup on February 9th.