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.
UWP-This weekend Platteville will be playing WSU, UNL, and UIUC. UWP’s first game against WSU should be one that they can win and is a great opportunity for their rookies to get a lot of valuable reps to help build up their confidence on the court. The veterans will be a key factor in building up that confidence as it will be needed for UIUC and UNL. Their second game of the day will be their most challenging and is their opportunity to try and pick up their first win on the Cornhuskers this year. This will be the fifth meeting between these teams this season and the cornhuskers have got the best of the Pioneers each time. In their last meeting, UWP came close and loss in an overtime match at the Hawkeye Showdown. To get a win against UNL, they will need to play their best and play an almost perfect game without mistakes if they want to finally get a W in the win column. That leaves their last opponent UIUC. In the last game they played at the Pioneer Classic, UWP felt that game was one that they should have won and they gave it away. UIUC has had the Pioneer’s number since last season and they have five wins in a row and we will see if UWP can prevent that from being six.
The tournament this weekend will tell a lot about what kind of team Platteville will have going forward. This tournament will set the tone for the rest of the semester and if they have what it takes to be competitive in their region or compete against other opponents. If they can play together as a team and the way they were taught they will have success this weekend, but if they play like individuals, they are going to struggle and have a rough time.
UIUC– UIUC will be playing: UNL, Iowa, and UWP. UIUC’s first game will be against UNL and this should be a competitive matchup and a prequel to what the central cup championship match will look like at Iowa in a few weeks. The last game they played against UNL at the Pioneer Classic, they only loss by a point with a score of 3-2. This tournament, they have a full squad and subs so that might just be what they need to compete and get a win against the cornhuskers. Their second game is against Iowa and this should be a game they should win without much trouble as their experience will keep them from making mistakes and stay ahead the entire match. In their third and finally match, they will take on the Pioneers and as was stated above, they have recently owned the matches against UWP and will look to continue extend this trend. As I said, they have a full roster so that only makes them just much harder to be beat and even more competitive than the last time they played.
UIUC this weekend will for the first time be at a tournament with a full squad and a few subs. For them, they will have to see if they can figure out how to play with those kinds of numbers. It really will effect how they play on the court and it could be for the good or the bad. By having a few extra players, it may cause them to fill in the gaps they were missing, but it also might throw them off since they are not used to having extra bodies on the floor. This tournament more than half their roster is first year players so how well they play will be a big deciding factor in if they win games this weekend.
UNL-UNL will be playing: UIUC, UWP, and Iowa. The Cornhusker’s first game is against UIUC and although it was close last time, I have a feeling that UNL will come out hot and try to put them away earlier and send a reminder of why they are the top team in the region. The second game is against UWP and although the last match up ended in an overtime win, don’t expect that to be the case this time around. UNL didn’t play at the level they wanted then and they will come out swinging and play a lot harder so that they don’t have another repeat of the last match up. The last game of the day for Nebraska is Iowa. In their first match up with Iowa, they came out strong and beat them 9-0. This time around the score should be a lot closer, but UNL should still win without too many issues.
UNL this weekend has a chance to keep their unbeaten record and move to 10-0. They have been the most consistent and stable team this season in the region and it shows with their record. They play really well together, and you can always expect the best out of their players and for them to play like a team. With a full roster at this event, they are building up their team chemistry and hopefully that will pay off come nationals.
Winona– Winona State will be playing: UWP, Mixed, and Alumni. Winona is a club in Minnesota that is going to come down and give the tournament a shot to see if they would like to join the league and play in future matches. They will be joined by some UW-La Crosse (UWL) club members and it should be fun to see them in action as a few played last year in an 6v6 event held by league ambassador Tomas Zander put on at UWL. For this team, it will be just going out there learning the game and having fun.
Iowa-Iowa will be playing: Mixed, UIUC, and UNL. Iowa’s first game against the mixed should be a good one that they will be able to compete in, both teams will have similar levels of experience so we could see several close points and a close match. Their second game will be against UIUC and this game should be a really fun one to watch as UIUC can play kind of chaotic at times and Iowa does as well so we should see a lot of action and the game might be closer than we expect it to be. The last match up that they will have is against UNL and although UNL will most likely get the better of them, they should be much more competitive with them and I think they are capable of getting a few points.
It will be exciting to see this Iowa team in action again since their induction match in December. They have a good core of people that are working hard to grow their club and raise funds to hopefully attend nationals at Ohio. They are really excited for the tournament and we know that they are going to show off a lot of their talent and show that they will be competitive in no time.
Mixed Team– The mixed team will be playing: Iowa, Winona, and the alumni. This team will consist of players from UWEC, Stout, UW- Stevens Point (UWSP), and UW-River Falls (UWRF). All the teams are working to build up their numbers so playing together on a mixed team is a great idea to get them experience and a great way to learn and not worry about the score and just play and have fun. It will be fun to meet all the new players in person and see what they pick up and learn this weekend.
Alumni– It is always fun to have the alumni come back and play and help out. They are a big part of why this tournament is able to happen each year. They always help with refereeing, streaming, court set up, and always bring a great attitude to make for a great atmosphere that is fun and competitive.
Women’s Matches
This weekend we will be having two women’s matches. The will be Winona vs Mixed which consists of UWSP, UWEC, UIUC, and Iowa. It will be exciting to see WSU in action as they have played this once before at the 6v6 event mentioned previously so we should be in for a good match. Our second match will be UWP vs UNL and this will count towards the rankings and the league will be able to officially add another team to the women’s standings! This is going to be a really good game as the UNL women have always been super talented and have showed that in the previous matches they played at the Pioneer Classic and the Hawkeye Showdown. The Pioneers have a lot more experience in this format and just got done playing in the Women’s Smackdown just a few weeks ago. Their experience should help them be competitive and it will come down to which team can get catches and that will be the team that wins. I’m exciting to finally see this match up as it is something I hoped would happen for a while!
Final Thoughts
This weekend we are in for some good games and several new players and teams are going to get their first experience at playing college dodgeball! There is no better place to do that at than at Platteville. The teams in attendance are growing and finding ways to be competitive. This tournament should hopefully be a stepping stone for some of these new clubs to get excited about playing and with any luck bring their own team to the UWEC tournament at the end of March! If you would like to catch the action, we will be streaming our games tomorrow on the Platteville youtube channel. Make sure to subscribe at the link below so you get a notification when we are live!