This weekend mark’s the fifth Zanderthon Throw-Down in its history. One of the best tournaments of the year and one that the Midway conference looks forward to the most. The teams in attendance will be University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL), Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP), and UWP alumni. Let’s take a look at the schedule for the day!
| Time | Court 1 | Referee | Court 2 | Referee | ||
| 9:30a.m. | UWP | SIUE | UNL | |||
| 10:45a.m. | UNL | SIUE | UWP | |||
| 12:00p.m | UWP | UNL | SIUE | |||
| 1:15p.m. | UNL | Alumni | UWP | SIUE | UWP/UNL JV | UWP |
| 2:30p.m. | UWP | Alumni | UWP |
Predicted Exchanges:
| High Seed | Low Seed | High Rating | Low Rating | Predicted | Upset |
| UWP | SIUE | 42.191 | 35.946 | 0.375 | 1.625 |
| UNL | SIUE | 38.209 | 35.571 | 0.736 | 1.264 |
| UWP | UNL | 42.567 | 38.945 | 0.638 | 1.362 |
Captain’s Thoughts– The following were the questions asked of the captains in attendance:
1. What are your expectations this time around for this tournament?
2. What players will have to step up in order for your team to be successful?
3. What are your score predictions for each game?
Robert Gabel (UNL)– I’m expecting it to be a lot of fun. Whenever the Midway Conference gets together it is competitive, but still friendly and that’s something I truly appreciate. I’m very excited to see how much SIUE has grown since November, and can’t wait to take the cone trophy from UWP. At the start of 2019-20 we only had a few veteran players, and they’ve done a great job leading us for the first couple of tournaments. However, now that all of the new players have a semester under their belts I’m going to be looking to them to step up and communicate more, get catches, and lead the team at times.
UWP vs SIUE: 4 – 2 (Both will be fresh, I expect it to be closer than last time).
UNL vs SIUE: 5 – 1 (SIUE will be tired from their first game, while we’ll be fresh).
UNL vs UWP: 3 – 1 (We’ve been working on our endurance, and I am hoping we won’t slip in the second half like we have in the past).
UNL vs Alumni: 3 – 4 (This will be our third straight match, and I’ve played against a lot of these alumnus before and know what they’re like).
UWP vs Alumni: 4 – 3 (After a rest, I hope UWP give the old folks a good match).
Daniel Brogli “Dirty Dan” (UWP)-I want us to gain experience, especially for our newer members. This will be a good opportunity for them and for building up the Midway Conference. I also want our team to build off of what they learned at the last tournament. For starters, myself. I’ll have to be a leader out there in the best way I know how. Otherwise, having our catchers and strategy throwers come through, and stick to playing at our speed will make the difference.
UWP – SIUE, 5-1
UWP – UNL, 3-2
UNL – SIUE, 4-1
Joe Perez (SIUE)– For us, I would like to see us be more aggressive than we were last time and play more as a unit. In order for us to play well and succeed this Saturday, we will need Josh Dale (#2), Esmir Karabas (#3), and Thomas Yancey (#1) to play their best game. They will need to bring the energy for us to compete. I think we will take a point against each of our opponents with the scores being
UWP- SIUE, 5-1
UNL- SIUE, 5-1
UWP- UNL 4-3
My thoughts– This will be an exciting day for sure and interesting to see how it pans out. For UNL, will they finally get the victory on UWP that they have been looking for all year. The question becomes can they get the lead on the Pioneers and have the endurance to keep playing hard and maintain that lead. If the Cornhuskers can do this, they will get the win this time around.
For Platteville, they are playing in back to back tournaments and they are coming off some tough losses at the Viking Cup. I know they will be looking to bounce back and this may be a problem for UNL because I know UWP will be pushing for that win hard. In any case, I know that this game will be a tough one for both squads and could come down to the wire once again.
I’m also looking forward to seeing SIUE in action. This is their third tournament this season, which is good for such a young squad! SIUE is becoming a more experienced team and this will make the matches against UWP and UNL much closer. This will be good experience for them as they try to make a push to head to nationals at Ohio State University.
By the end of the weekend, the teams in the Midway will have played a total of 12 games against each other this season. This may not seem like a lot, but for a conference where most teams have to travel six hours to play each other, it is impressive to say the least. I know that these teams are going to compete, have fun, and are looking forward to Saturday! The Platteville Dodgeball Club will be live-streaming once again, so look for it if you need your dodgeball fix.