Event Reviews – Page 3

Buckeye Showcase Recap

There’s never a dull weekend in Columbus. Last Sunday’s Buckeye Showcase proved to be the most exhilarating season opener yet (and arguably the most exciting thing to happen in Columbus that weekend). Ohio State hosted 5 schools for the third annual Buckeye Showcase, and my oh my, what a day of close matches. Obviously, teams can change a lot between the start of the season and Nationals, but if these teams continue to play like they did at the Showcase, the Ohio Region very well could claim the National Title this season.

If you weren’t at this event, the above claim probably doesn’t hold a lot of weight – there’s a lot to unpack. Let’s go team by team to evaluate what we saw and speculate the future of these teams.

Zanderthon Throw-Down Recap

This past weekend, the sixth annual Zanderthon Throw-Down took place between the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) and the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP). We also got to see UWP alumni in action. The following were the scores for the day.
UNL def UWP 4-0.
Alumni def UWP 4-2
Alumni def UNL 5-0
UWP def UNL 3-2 (OT)

Improbable Comeback Gives Michigan State First Michigan Dodgeball Cup Title since 2005

May be an image of 6 people and people standing

17 years.

That’s how long it had been since the last time Michigan State University’s dodgeball club members could call themselves Michigan Dodgeball Cup Champions. 17 years of heartbreak. 17 years of what-ifs. 17 years of being the butt of jokes from rival Michigan teams when February rolled around.

What started as a two-team event highlighting the rivalry between Michigan State and Delta College, turned into arguably the most historic regular season event in collegiate dodgeball. Back in 2005, when the Spartans were victorious over Delta College by a score of 8-3 in the Inaugural Michigan Dodgeball Cup, nobody could’ve foreseen the suffering the program would go through at this particular event over the next 17 years.

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.

Cardinal Invitational Recap

Way back on November 20th, the Cardinal Invitational took place. With everyone very busy with the holiday weekend and preparing for finals, it took a little while to compile each team’s lasting thoughts for the tournament. We take a look at what leaders from (almost) every team had to say.

Saginaw Valley State Perspective:

Viking Clash Recap

On December 4, 2021 at the Viking Clash, four teams went head to head at the Cleveland State Recreational Center, three from Ohio and one from the Midway region. The teams that went head to head were: Cleveland State University (CSU), Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Kent State University (Kent) and the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP). Let’s take a look at the results on the day.

Pioneer Classic & Cornhusker Clash Recap

In the Pioneer Classic and the Cornhusker Clash, the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) took to the courts to play back-to-back double headers to start their seasons. Below are the results:

Pioneer Classic:
Game 1: UNL def UWP 4-1
Game 2: UNL def UWP 3-2
Cornhusker Clash:
Game 1: UNL def UWP 4-1
Game 2: UNL def UWP 4-3 (OT)

2nd Annual John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza Tournament Review

The second annual John Betters’ Bobcat Bonanza showed us where a lot of teams stand at this point in the season. With most teams having played a match throughout the league as of the conclusion of this weekend, I think we are finally starting to get a good picture for how each team compares to one another. While there are still a lot of lingering questions (IE – how does the majority of the East Coast stand up to the rest of the league? What does Michigan State look like? Is Towson still truly a top team in the NCDA? Are Grand Valley and Cincinnati actually that good?), we did get some real answers this weekend. Yes, Grand Valley is still a force to be reckoned with. Yes, Cincinnati is a legitimate title contender despite the loss to the aforementioned Lakers. Yes, the league is in overall good health with impressively large rookie classes for a lot of teams who hadn’t played prior to this weekend such as Ohio and Saginaw Valley.

What hasn’t been answered, however, is what each team thought about their own individual performances on the weekend. The participating Captains and Presidents minced no words when it comes to how they felt about their teams’ performances this past weekend. Here’s what they had to say:

Towson keeps control of East Coast after Maryland Madness

While there are no certainties in life, it is fair to say that coming off of the season and a half hiatus Towson was still likely to be the top team in the East Coast. After a few tournaments, including this previous weekend’s ‘Maryland Madness’ hosted by UMD, that remains the case. The rest of the East Coast has been anything but predictable, though.

Inaugural Southern Dodgeball Cup Recap

The following was written by Zach Rivera (GSU – Alumni)

Mar. 7, 2020 – Dahlonega, GA

Earlier this month, the University of North Georgia (UNG) hosted the University of Kentucky (UK) and Georgia Southern University (GSU) for the inaugural Southern Dodgeball Cup (SDC). Although the Southern Region of the NCDA is not as large as some of the other established regions in the league, this tournament showed just how competitive this region has become with some nail-biting matches that are sure to show the rest of the league what to expect from these Southern teams in the future. Below are the scores and outcomes from the tournament, and some thoughts on each matchup and how each team did overall:

Zanderthon Throw-Down 5 Recap

Last Saturday, marked another successful Zanderthon Throw-Down. The teams showed up and came to compete. The talent on these teams is better than every and they will be able to show it off in just over a month’s time. Here are the scores from the weekend.

The Viking Cup Recap

At the Viking Cup, several teams went head to head for some quality matches to prepare for nationals. Several of the games were close and tested teams’ ability to fight and go for the win. Below are the scores for the day and captain’s thoughts on the teams in attendance.

Match	Score	Winner
SVSU vs UWP	2-1	SVSU
WMU vs BSU	5-3	WMU
CSU vs SVSU	3-2	CSU
CSU vs UWP	4-3	CSU
UWP vs BSU	7-1	UWP
SVSU vs UK	5-2	SVSU
WMU vs UK	5-2	WMU
UK vs BSU	6-4	UK
CSU vs WMU	Forfeit	CSU

Weekend Recap: Biggest Winners / Losers from Last Saturday

Saturday, February 22, 2020 was a hectic day for college dodgeball. In total, 18 schools were in action on Saturday, spread across 3 separate tournaments: Ohio Dodgeball Cup, BEAST, and Viking Cup. It was a day full of awesome games and interesting results, with 28 total matches taking place throughout the day. There is certainly a lot to unpack after Saturday, so to break things down a bit, let’s take a look at the biggest ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ from last weekend.

Before we get to the fun stuff, here are the results from the weekend:

…And here is your current top 20 Gonzalez Standings:

Now onto the winners and losers from Saturday:

Winners:

Western Michigan

It was a historic day for the Western Michigan University Dodgeball Club on Saturday, as the Broncos earned their first two wins ever. WMU beat Ball State 5-3, then followed it up with a 5-2 win over Kentucky in which the Broncos came back from a 2-1 halftime deficit to score four-consecutive points en route to a huge victory. Along with Captain Peter Broe leading the way, WMU had some strong consistent play from Ryan Allor and Randy Santana-Jiminez as well as some clutch performances by Hue Pettway and Evin Cooper. Saturday was a great day for WMU, and a stepping stone for their program moving forward. Western’s commitment to consistently facing tough competition in the Michigan Region is starting to pay off, and they are moving up the rankings because of it. This team has an exciting future.

Michigan Dodgeball Cup Recap: GVSU Wins 6th-Straight, MSU Ends a 15-Year ‘Curse’, Finishing 2nd

EAST LANSING, MI: For the 6th-consecutive season, the Michigan Dodgeball Cup will be staying in Allendale Michigan. The Grand Valley State Lakers won the 16th Annual MDC with a 4-0 record on the day, including an overtime thriller against Michigan State. The Spartans were able to win each of their other games, going 3-1 at MDC, making it the first time since 2005 that MSU had a winning record at the event. Central Michigan (2-2), Saginaw Valley State (1-3), and Western Michigan (0-4) were the other three teams in attendance, and each showed some good things throughout the day. Below are the final results from the tournament:

MSU def SVSU 3-2
CMU def WMU 5-2
GVSU def MSU 3-2 (OT)
SVSU def WMU 5-1
CMU def SVSU 3-1
GVSU def WMU 6-0
GVSU def CMU 4-1
MSU def WMU 6-1
MSU def CMU 4-0
GVSU def SVSU 5-0

GVSU wins Spartan Invite, MSU beats CMU in Comeback Fashion

The annual Spartan Invite took place on Sunday, with three traditionally dominant schools in attendance. Grand Valley State won the day, going 2-0, with Michigan State finishing 1-1, and Central Michigan finishing 0-2. The end result for each game was about what most would expect, but how we got there was a bit more interesting. Below is a recap of each match that took place this past Sunday at IM Sports West.

GVSU def CMU 5-1

The Lakers were victorious over Central Michigan in the first matchup between these two rivals since last season’s national semifinal game (an overtime thriller). The first point of this game was unexpected for those who have followed the results of each team so far this year. The Chippewas grabbed the ball advantage right from the get go, and used it to help them pick off some GVSU players early on. Central used an aggressive playstyle early on in the point, and they connected on some great crosses and counters to catch GVSU off guard. CMU eventually knocked GVSU down to just Ben Smart left on the court, and after some back and forth plays, Jawanza Edwards was able to step up and make a diving catch on a long reset throw from Smart to end the point giving CMU a 1-0 lead.