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!
UIUC
These four women deserve all the respect and recognition they’ve received from the rest of the league as their performance this season was incredible. Their players all have their own unique strengths that fill the niches on the court exceptionally well, and they are all capable of stepping up into the role of leader when they need to. They played UWP three times this year, winning two of the matches, and they were able to attend the Women’s Spartan Smackdown tournament which offered new opponents and harder games. Their next big tournament was nationals where they performed very well for a team consisting of two vets and two rookies. They didn’t win all their games, but they kept the points alive with careful plays and a defensive strategy. Overall, these women have worked very hard over the 2025-2026 season, and their ability to be so successful as a team of four is very impressive. We are looking forward to who they recruit for this coming season, and we can’t wait to see what they’ll do next.
UWP
To refresh our memories, UWP went into the 2025 Nationals with a team of seven players. At the end of that season, one player graduated, and two decided to not return. Going into the 2026 season, they had a great fall recruiting period where they saw several women interested in joining. At Platteville’s first tournament, they had eight women participating in the open matches. Unfortunately, by the time Nationals rolled around again, they had reduced down to a team of six. Regardless of the loss, they managed to fight hard throughout the season at the Women’s Spartan Smackdown tournament at MSU and during all their official matches against UIUC’s and UNL’s women’s teams. UWP has been amazing advocates and ambassadors for the women’s league, and their players have been recognized across the league as strong, skillful players. With five players hopefully returning for the upcoming season, their veterans should have no trouble recruiting and building up a powerful team for another successful season.
UNL
What makes the UNL women exceptional is their performance in both leagues. They are strong and confident, and their growth throughout the season was incredibly impressive. I mentioned in the Central Region Recap how UNL has the impressive ability to grow and improve in near isolation, and it shows in their women’s team as well. Between the Pioneer Classic IV in November of 2025 and the Central Region Cup in March of 2026, their team gained the confidence to play the other veteran teams in the region in not only Open but womens as well. The Central Region Cup had an official match between UWP’s and UIUC’s women’s teams, but the four women that make up UNL’s team were able to get valuable reps in with the help of UWP’s alum, Kate Douglas, against the UWP guys. The skill level and confidence had greatly increased since their last match as a team, and they were able to more effectively strategize as a team which led to more points being scored. It was a shame they were unable to attend women’s nationals, as much as they and their coach wanted to, but they were able to still showcase their skills at the Open league’s nationals the weekend after. We look forward to the growth these women will continue to achieve, and we look forward to the growth of the team and their attendance at nationals next season.
Prospective Teams
UW-Eau Claire: UWEC has two strong and confident women who want to play as much no-sting as they can, and they have helped build the UWEC club into what it is today. They have participated in several events this season including two home tournaments with scheduled women’s matches. Cleo Moen (#7) and Kaitlynn Moore (#2) have worked hard to not only play open and lead their team, but they offer the UWP and UIUC women a chance to play confident and unpredictable opponents. We hope they can continue to recruit more women onto both teams to help grow the northern teams and give the rest of the league a run for their money.
Winona: The ladies from Winona have participated in several events over the last two seasons and have participated in both the open and women’s league styles. Their participation at the La Crosse event in February of 2025 and at the Zanderthon Throw-Down X in February 2026 has allowed the central region teams to play a team they don’t see as often, and it pushes them to adapt to new strategies and styles. Winona is a team full of strong, confident players who want to win, and they play to win. Their addition to the league would help add another state to the central region, but it would most importantly continue to grow the women’s league in a region who already recognizes their potential. Their addition would not only help the central region as a whole, but it would specifically help the northern teams–UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, and prospective team UW-La Crosse–compete in events outside those hosted by UW-Platteville or UW-Eau Claire, and it would make the Central Region Cup an even more exciting event.
Iowa: This was Iowa’s first official season in the open league, and they don’t have an official women’s team (yet). However, the few women that are currently members of the team have participated in a few women’s events over the course of the season. The Zanderthon Throw-Down X allowed them to dip their toes into the world of women’s no-sting, and they seemed to enjoy it since even more women have showed interest in joining the team for next season. We are looking forward to their recruitment, and we hope they get enough women to officially join the women’s league.
