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.

Next for MSU is the Chicago Dodgeball Open, hosted at the Ray Meyer Fitness Center on Depaul’s campus. The Spartans will get games with Moody Bible Institute, Nebraska, (possibly) James Madison, and Grand Valley.

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In the final game of Andrew Koczara’s (#24) and Chris Kramer’s (#21) illustrious careers, Michigan State had a roller coaster thrill ride of a battle with GVSU, one in which they would lose 3-2 in overtime. After dropping the first point to Grand Valley in about 10 minutes, MSU would fight back with strong play, especially catches, team throws, and counters, and take the next point going into the half. To start the second half, MSU jumped out of the game quickly and took another point, this time with around 12 people still on the court, and gave the Spartans just their second ever lead over GVSU. However, as it neared crunch time, it was clear that the Lakers weren’t going down without a fight, as they came out with stellar team play and over-matched Michigan State to take the fourth point, making it 2-2. Neither side played very riskily for the fifth point, and the game headed for overtime.

Michigan State chose Koczara and Kramer, along with Alex Acton (#72), Eric Paul (#9), Mike Van Ermen (#6), and Andy Lieblich (#20) for the overtime duel, as Grand Valley countered with Mark Trippiedi (#8), Dylan Fettig (#24), Kevin Bailey (#4), Kenny Bacchus (#32), Josh Stevenson (#13), and Ryan Knight (#11). State took out Knight extremely quick, then got a great catch from Acton on Trippiedi to make it a 6-4 advantage for the Spartans. However, GVSU would even the odds by taking out Acton, Lieblich, and Van Ermen while only losing Josh Stevenson to make it even at three players a piece. The Spartans took down Fettig to take a 3-2 advantage, leaving Bacchus and Bailey on the court for GVSU against Koczara, Kramer, and Paul for MSU. GVSU dropped Koczara next, bringing it to a two vs two fight to the finish. After a missed team throw opportunity against Bacchus on a balls over, Eric Paul smartly fired on at a dodging Bacchus, getting the kill. After a couple of balls over going both ways, MSU had ten balls to GVSU’s none, but a diving catch by Bailey on Kramer brought Knight back in, putting State on the defensive. Then Knight threw at Paul, but Paul made the catch, bringing back in Acton, but before Acton could throw with Paul, Bailey threw out Paul. This led to a one on one scenario of two All-Stars.They both threw, they both hit, but the ball that hit Acton hit the ground before the ball that hit Bailey’s did, meaning another Laker victory in the rivalry.

This was undoubtedly the best game in the history of this one sided rivalry, and will go up there with the win over Delta College in the 2009 MDC, the win over SVSU in the 2010 MDC, and the losses to CMU and GVSU in the 2010 and 2011 Nationals as the best performances by a Michigan State squad ever.