Another Sunday, another women’s dodgeball tournament! This time, on October 18th, University of Akron will be hosting the fourth installment of the Women’s Pink Out tournament with Grand Valley University and Cleveland State University as guests. This event will coincide with the open league’s Pink Out tournament, so check out that article for more information on the event. For now, let’s take a look at the teams attending!
Sunday, October 11th, is welcoming another brand new women’s tournament to the women’s league! From Grand Valley State University, the Women’s Grand Valley Gauntlet, will be run at the same time as the Grand Valley Gauntlet XIII for the open division. This year, GVSU, MSU, and CMU will be in attendance for both tournaments.
Saturday, October 10th, welcomes the first ever Heartland Havoc women’s tournament hosted by Iowa! This is a very big accomplishment not only for their young coach, Andrew Heim, but for the central region as a whole as this is the first official women’s tournament hosted in the region. Several events like the two Platteville home tournaments, the central region cup, and Eau Claire’s home tournaments have scheduled women’s matches along side their open games, but the Heartland Havoc is the first all women’s event. If you didn’t know, the central region had half the teams in the women’s league going into this season as well as some of the youngest teams in the division. This makes having an official women’s tournament in the region all the more important not only for internal team growth but regional growth as well. It gives our women the opportunity to prioritize and showcase all the hard work they’ve put into their team so far this season, and it offers a glimpse into what the rest of the season will look like. This event will see four teams in attendance: UWP, UIUC, UWEC, and of course Iowa. Each team will play three games, and at the end of the day, an open match between Iowa and a mixed team will take place.
The season for the Women’s League kicked off with the combined Red Cedar Rumble tournament hosted by Michigan State University. This year’s tournament looked very different with the teams present as well as the inclusion of the women’s division games. In the past, this event was similar to the Cornhusker Clash, hosted by UNL, where one or two teams would be in attendance. This year, Bowling Green and Grand Valley attended the open tournament, and Akron, Grand Valley, and Illinois attended the women’s tournament! It was great to see all the teams join MSU at this event, so let’s take a look at each team!
Continue reading “Women’s Red Cedar Rumble IV Recap”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!
Continue reading “Central Region Women’s Preview 2026-27”The NCDA’s Women’s league has seen a boost in attention over the course of the last two seasons, and it’s unsurprising with how hard these women fight for their spotlight. This season, unfortunately, recruitment seems to be far more challenging than previous years, which forces teams to fall back on their vets as teams slowly shrink in size. But recruitment isn’t everything, so let’s see how these teams are doing coming out of summer break and learn who’s on the playing field for this season!
Continue reading “2026-2027 Women’s League Preview”The past few seasons have gifted the central region with significant growth in its women’s teams. University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC) got the ball rolling by participating in the first ever women’s national tournament, and University of Wisconsin-Platteville (UWP) was quick to follow by forming their own team to compete the following year. Now the central region has three official women’s teams, the third being University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), who were unable to attend nationals this year. Now, at the end of the 2026 season, there are three more schools who have a chance at forming teams and joining the women’s league. This is huge! The women’s league has been dominated by Michigan State University and University of Akron since its debut, so seeing the league branch out of the Ohio/Michigan region into the central region is very exciting to be a part of. Let’s take a look at how the women of the central region did this season!
Continue reading “Central Region Women’s 2026 Season Recap”Each year nationals gives teams the chance to fight harder than any other game to come out on top. It also gives teams who haven’t experienced many games or every team the opportunity to show off their skills and hard work. This year, in the third annual Women’s National Dodgeball tournament in Akron, Ohio, 58 players formed eight teams across 9 school to battle for the trophy.
All photos included were taken by Kate Douglas (me).
Continue reading “2026 Women’s Nationals Recap”When the average person hears the word “dodgeball,” they often think back to elementary school or maybe even middle and high school when they were forced to play during gym class. While the gist is the same, the WNCDA takes it to a whole new level; it’s no longer just “throw the ball!” or “hit your classmate!” This sport requires teams as little as four and as large as nine to jive well while on the court, encourage each others strengths, and support each others weaknesses–which can be challenging amidst the intensity of the game. The teams may seem small, but the desire to win is huge. And regardless of the experience of the players or age of the team, this game is for anyone who loves competition and working hard as a team.
On January 31st, Michigan State University (MSU) hosted this years Women’s Spartan Smackdown women’s tournament! This was the last big women’s event before nationals, which we now know will be hosted by University of Akron. It was amazing to see all those who showed up especially the teams who could form secondary teams! The day was long and each team played hard, so let’s take a look at how they did and read about what some players thought about the day!
On Saturday, January 31st, Michigan State University (MSU) will be hosting the Spartan Smackdown Women’s tournament! This tournament will see a few new faces like the University of Wisconsin-Platteville team, the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and the Northern Kentucky University team. It will also be showcasing the reigning women’s dodgeball champions, University of Ohio-Akron as well as big-shots and host, Michigan State University. This tournament will help solidify the positions of the women’s teams while also helping the rookies get a feel for the current league atmosphere leading up to nationals. Let’s hope our rookie teams can turn some heads while our veteran teams provide an invaluable example of what a team can become.
