This Saturday, November 12th, the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP) will be hosting the follow teams at the Pioneer Classic: Cleveland State University (CSU), Western Michigan University (WMU), University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL), Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW), and some washed up alumni. This will be the first time ever that a team from the Michigan or Ohio regions will have ever traveled out to play at the Pioneers’ home court. This will also be CUW’s first ever tournament and another team joining the league! Below is the schedule and highlight of the teams.
Cleveland State University– For CSU, this is the first tournament of the year that they will be leaving the state of Ohio to play in. This will be a new experience as most of the games they have played to this point have been at CSU, Akron, or Kent. Cleveland State will be traveling a long distance that may impact their play on Saturday. The Vikings will also be playing four games, so this is a great opportunity to see where they are at as a team and how much more work they will have to put in to prepare for Nationals. The game they are most looking forward to having is another shot at UNL. At Nationals last year, they lost to them 2-0 and this is their opportunity to right that wrong.
Western Michigan University– This is the Broncos’ third tournament this year. They played at the John Betters Bobcat Bonanza and the Sagnasty Classic. At both events, they were only able to bring 11 players. They were even able to put up two points on GVSU, which isn’t an easy thing to do. At the Pioneer Classic, they will be bringing a full 18-player roster so this should be their most talented squad to date. They are working on getting experience to keep improving and are looking forward to playing CSU. The last time they played CSU, they lost to the them 4-2, so this is their opportunity to get a win.
University of Nebraska– Since last November, the Cornhuskers have played a total of eight games against UWP. Those have been the only games and team they have been able to face off against outside Nationals. The Zanderthon Throw-Down 5 back in February of 2020 is the last time, (where they played SIUE) to play a team that was not Platteville. They are getting three games against teams that are not the Pioneers and opportunities to play other teams outside of Nationals.
Concordia University Wisconsin– The Falcons are the new kids on the block and are ready to join the league. Connor Knott, their leader, has been working hard to make sure to get all the paperwork in and preparing the team. They are ready to be play their fellow Wisconsin team as they hope it will be a great start to a new fun rivalry game. It is another team joining the NCDA, as it continues to grow college dodgeball in the Central Region. To support them, follow them on their Instagram account CUW Falcons Dodgeball.
University of Wisconsin Platteville– The Pioneers are ready to host this event as it is the first time in a long time that there will be other teams in attendance besides Nebraska. To date, this is the biggest tournament hosted by UWP. Platteville will get the opportunity to play another Wisconsin team as the last time that happened it was back in December 2016 when the University of Wisconsin Whitewater hosted the Whitewater Winter Basher.
Final thoughts– This is going to be a great weekend filled with some awesome games and another team will be welcomed to the league. UWP will be working to stream both courts for all the matches. It will be done on UWP’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. Should anything change, check for updates on the event page. The links to each are below and make sure to follow and subscribe to the pages!