UIUC – NCDA

Women’s Heartland Havoc Preview

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.

Women’s Red Cedar Rumble IV Recap

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!

Central Region Women’s Preview 2026-27

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!

2026-2027 Women’s League Preview

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!

Central Region Preview 2026-2027

It’s time to dust off our jerseys as we approach the start of the 2026-27 NCDA season! The central region is excited to welcome back its many players and teams from a well deserved summer break as well as introduce those trying to break into the league. Lots of exciting things happened over the course of last season: First ever Central Region cup, two-time consolation bracket winners (UWP), Iowa’s first official season, and so much more! It will be exciting to see what happens next in the Central region, but for now, let’s take a look at who’s returning.

Central Region Women’s 2026 Season Recap

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!

2026 All Central Region Conference

We celebrate the conclusion of the 2025-2026 season by recognizing and congratulating the individual players who put in the effort to make it to the All Central Region team. The teams that make up the central region are the following: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, University of Iowa, and University of Wisconsin-Stout. The players that make this team are voted in by their peers, and thank you to those who helped make this post possible. Let’s take a look at what they have to say.

Central Region 2026 Season Recap

Compared to previous seasons, the Central region made leaps and bounds in terms of progress and growth. Not only did rookie team Iowa host their first official tournament, they also sent ambassadors to this years national tournament in Athens, OH, AND they hosted the first ever Central Region Cup. The number of teams currently in the Central region–six official and four prospective–makes them the second largest region in the league, right behind the Ohio region with eight teams.

2026 Women’s Nationals 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).

Central Region Cup Recap

It was an exciting weekend for the Central Region as March 7th was the first official Central Region Cup! UNL, UIUC, UWP, and Iowa met up in Iowa City at the University of Iowa to compete for the Central Region Championship. Each game was intense, and each team fought hard for every point scored. In the end, UNL came out on top with an incredible 3-0 record, making their overall win-loss 13-0! Let’s see how each team did.

Central Region Cup Preview

The incredible growth of the central region reaches its peak as we head into the Central Dodgeball Cup tournament this Saturday, March 7th, 2026 at the University of Iowa. These teams last saw each other two weeks prior at the Zanderthon Throw-Down X where Nebraska (UNL) came out on top. This time, the stakes are higher as each team fights for their place as champions.

Zanderthon Throw-Down X Recap

The annual Zanderthon Throw-Down took place on February 21st at the University of Wisconsin Platteville. This event had the following teams represented: Platteville, Illinois, Stout, Eau Claire, Nebraska, Winona State, River Falls, La Crosse, Stevens Point, Iowa, and UWP alumni. This was one the biggest events ever held in the central region. In previous years, the Zanderthon Throw-Down was just between UWP and UNL and just last year it was UWP vs UIUC. It show cased a total of ten teams. Six current member teams and four upcoming teams with the potential of joining the league this semester.

We also had two women’s matches on the day and added another team to the women’s standings with UNL having their first official match as a club! There were a lot of exciting matches with a few overtimes. Let’s take a look at the results and hear some thoughts from players on the day. Pictures below were taken by Emily Diekmann.

Zanderthon Throw-Down X Preview

Platteville will be hosting the 10th annual Zanderthon Throw-Down on February 21st. The teams in attendance will be the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP), the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL), the University of Iowa, Winona State University (WSU), University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC), the University of Wisconsin Stout (UWS), University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (UWEC), upcoming Wisconsin schools, and alumni. This weekend will mark one of the biggest events to date for this region and for a lot of players in attendance, this is going to be their first experience playing college dodgeball. Let’s take a look at the teams and the schedule below.

Women’s Spartan Smackdown Recap

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!