While this preview comes a little late into the start of the season, I touched on all of these teams in the Women’s League Preview, which you can read here. For this article, I wanted to hear from the teams directly on how the season’s been going so far. So below are the interview questions I asked each team in the region. Thank you to those who responded, so let’s hear from the teams!
How has this season recruitment gone?
Rachel Tysdal (UNL): Women’s recruitment hasn’t gone great for us this year. We sent our info to girls who didn’t make the club softball team and didn’t hear back from them and have no women’s rookies this year.
Cleo Moen (UWEC): Good!! I was expecting some hesitation but during our 8.5 nights people enjoy playing with the balls so it’s great to see. We’ve also had so much more interest in tournaments which makes it so fun because we get to bring a full team.
Tera Pabico (UIUC): Really great! We’re excited to have 3 enthusiastic new members that enjoy learning a new sport and overall just have a positive attitude. Retainment is always a struggle but we’re really grateful for our rookies.
Bennie Toko (Iowa): Recruitment season brought lots of new talent that we’re looking forward to showcasing once Iowa is done having home football games.
Reagan Bucholtz (UWP): Recruitment has been a bit of a struggle for our team this year. Both of our main recruitment fairs had terrible weather, making it more difficult to recruit. We do have one new woman rookie, Emily Diekmann, however she will be graduating in the spring. We are hoping to still recruit more!
What are some events you hope to attend/host this season?
RT: It would be awesome if we could get enough girls to go to women’s nationals or a women’s tournament at UWP or Illinois but we may not have a healthy team in time to attend.
I am ITCHING to play some of the MSU and Akron girls. As the central region we only get to really play each other so nobody hears about us really or knows what to expect. I don’t even know what the outcome would be from playing those girls but I think we could give them a run for their money if we could get a consistent amount of girls to come out and I could recover fully.
CM: We plan to attend as many tournaments as we can. That includes UW-Stout and UW-Platteville of course and maybe Iowa in the future if we can get enough interest.
TB: We’re looking to host Illini Impact II this semester and get a women’s match incorporated into the schedule! We’re also hoping MSU hosts the Spartan Smackdown tournament again, we loved having the opportunity to play against so many teams and really challenge ourselves. Finally, we’re looking forward to going to Iowa for their inaugural women’s tournament and play against the central region women’s teams again. I love any opportunity to play against our local rivals and see how much each team has grown!
BT: We are excited to host the Hawkeye state showdown and Heartland Havoc, our women’s tournament!
RB: I am super excited for the Heartland Havoc Women’s tournament in Iowa! There will also be women’s matches at the Pioneer Classic VII!
Who are some players that you look forward to playing?
RT: The only time I got the opportunity to play Alexis was in open division or the women’s match at the start of nationals the last two years which isn’t the same as playing no sting. After watching the podcast episode with the women’s previews they ranked us pretty low and were pretty confident they were gonna stay at the top but with Allie Pohl graduating, the team has big shoes to fill and Nebraska is truly just getting started. Long story short, I would love to play Makayla and Mack. We would love to play UWP again and avenge our OT loss from last season.
CM: I’m just looking forward to playing against more women with a women’s team!!
TB: I’m always looking forward to playing against Platteville – super excited to head up there in November! Also, looking forward to playing teams like NKU and GVSU more and hopefully win in our next rematches. As for players, Mia from NKU did phenomenal in the OT 1v1 at women’s nationals and can’t wait to see her game grow in our next match. I also think Jamie Damm from Platteville had a great rookie season and I’m sure she’ll only go up from there!
BT: 1. Play first official match. 2. Get at least one point per tournament. 3. Have at least 6 consistent members. 4. Have our first fully no sting practice.
RB: I look forward to playing all the UIUC girls! The verterans, Naila, Tera, Jia, and Christina, are insanely impressive and I can’t wait to see what they can do on the court now that they have more people. I also look forward to hopefully playing NKU again this year. Last year they were really close competition and I can’t wait to see how they have grown, especially Morgan and Layla.
What are some goals your team hopes to achieve?
RT: Our biggest goal for the team is to gain a strong foundation for a team this year. Basically, get at least four girls who consistently come out and want to get better because right now we aren’t able to even compete.
CM: Some goals I want my team to achieve is being able to get a full team to each tournament. We lacked some consistency last year but I know we can do it this year. I also want to see more wins!! We won a match at stout and I was so happy because I knew we had it in us.
TB: We’re hoping to become more cohesive as a team, especially with Alejandro stepping up to coach us. I hope we can also strengthen our court communication, and with the more matches we play, I hope our team chemistry and overall game IQ as a unit increases too.
BT: We are excited to play everyone honestly. Especially UIUC and UWP to see how we stack up against Final Four Schools and hopefully make it there as well.
RB: We hope to play in at least 2 women’s tournaments before nationals. We also want to score at least 1 point against all of our opponents this year.
Tell us about some of your players!
RT: Andrea Mandujano – second year playing dodgeball, she is gaining so much more situational awareness on the court and is a strong support player in the open division. She is slowly becoming a super strong catcher!! Super excited to see her grow even more as a player this season
Abigail Nelson – Third year I believe? She is a great support player in the open division as well, this girl can catch some crazy stuff. She puts her body on the line for her teammates and can make some pretty great plays and also keeps people on the court who she knows will get some kills. Also, a fantastic blocker! She has been on and off with throwing but knows her strengths and sticks to them.
Both these girls step up when they are needed and rise to a challenge and it makes them stronger and better players for sure!
I am the third and final woman on the team this year. This is my third season playing dodgeball. I had secured a spot on our starting twelve for open at the start of nationals but that was obviously short lived after tearing my acl and meniscus first game of nationals. I have grown to love this game and just have fun with it! I come from a background of softball so the throwing and catching slowly came to as I got more used to the pace of the game. I was pretty stoked to have made it onto the all American list. It felt like I poured a lot of work into the season last year it was nice to see that it paid off.
Our women’s team has pretty solid attendance at practices compared to open! Our girls are dedicated to getting better and it definitely shows I would love for us to break through the central region and compete outside our region as a team.
CM: One player I wanna highlight is Kate Thompson. Kate is a new woman we recruited last year and she stuck with us!! She’s been to both tournaments so far and is a great addition to our co-ed and women’s team. She’s a great co-captain and kept the energy up in stout which made it exciting. Overall, a fun player to watch and has a huge amount of potential.
TB: Elle is a quick learner and has a great attitude! She loves dodgeball and will tackle any hurdle with a smile. I’m excited to see her grow this year and for the following, especially with her being involved in both women’s and open division, I’m already impressed with her understanding of dodgeball only after a month of practice!
Joyce is developing her defense with blocking and she’s someone that refuses to back down. She did great surviving at her first tournament and can’t wait to see how much she’ll continue to grow!
Same goes to Zaya, both her and Joyce had a very positive, uplifting attitude at their first tournament and never let anything stop them from having fun. It was nice to have their positive energy at a tournament! Zaya was doing great at doing resets for the team and also providing backup. Can’t wait to see her again at future tournaments!
BT: Our women’s captain is Benie Toko and also the vice president. It will be nice to have her experience to help all of our rookies on the court. Everyone else will be in their first season experiencing NCDA. If I had to choose a few more to look out for I would say Iselynn Prevo (Freshman) and Delphi Dixon (Freshman). Iselynn is super athletic and has a really good arm. Delphi is super dedicated to growing the team and does a lot behind the scenes to help us recruit.
RB: Jamie Damm is the co-captain of the woman’s team! Last year she made Women’s 2nd Team Rookie All-American. She is now in her second year and is a fierce player on the court. She has a great throw that just keeps getting better. She is a great communicator on court as well as being an incredible teammate providing tips and encouragement. Hollie Wheeler is one of our better known players, and for good reason! Last year she made Women’s 2nd Team All-American and this summer she won #1 Mixed MVP at a tournament in Minnesota. She is our most veteran player and she has the throwing and catching abilities to back it up! Tori Sanborn is one of our strongest catchers, getting 21 catches last season! She also gets remarkable out production while also being our head play caller on court. Chloe Kaderabek is one of the most reliable people you can get on the court. She is always there to protect her teammates no matter the circumstances they are in. She last year was a strong blocker and catcher. This year, her throw is already looking deadly! Emily Diekmann is our only rookie so far this year, but don’t let that fool you. She is going to be a powerhouse on the court! Her throwing and catching skills are already comparable to the rest of us vets, and she’s only getting better from there!
Final Thoughts
I’m sure all the alumni and staff of the central region can agree, but we are greatly looking forward to this season’s growth for the women’s league. From having only one or two teams attend nationals at a time with no regional tournaments the first two seasons (the 2024 and 2025 seasons) to having women’s specific home tournaments and traveling to events like the Spartan Smackdown at MSU, the opportunities that have become available to our women not only strengthens their women’s teams but translates over to their open teams. The skills and heartbreaking lessons each player learns will only build stronger teams. We are hopeful our women will compete at the same caliber as the rest of the league.
Check out each team’s socials for updates on the teams and to see the fun things each teams are doing! Check out the NCDA’s Instagram and Facebook for updates on tournaments, results, and more articles on the Women’s League!