On April 5th and 6th, Cleveland State University hosted the 2024-2025 season’s National tournament. We initially had a full roster, but a couple unlucky developments resulted us taking a team of sixteen. Another accomplishment was four of those sixteen players were women! That’s two more than last year! We were all very excited to show what we’ve learned over the season, and we got to test our skills out on JMU first!
UWP vs JMU
Our first game of the day was against James Madison University, a team we played and lost to last year. Due to that, we had a few team goals and individual goals we wanted to achieve. Players Hollie Wheeler and Griffin Johnson had personal beef they were able to sort out, professionally, mind you.
We started half way through the day which allowed us ample time to watch our opponents’ other games and to warm up thoroughly. Much like most of our previous tournaments, the first game of the day is never our best performance. The first half against JMU showed many beginner mistakes like not moving up together, throwing from both sides of the court, and throwing high. After getting some tough love from Coach, we were able to screw our heads on straight and we managed to take a point on them this year. Last year, when we played JMU, we lost 4-0 , but this year we went 3-1! It is one of our goals to score at least one point on each opponent we play, and while we didn’t win against them, we are proud to have rocked the boat and showed how hard we are willing to fight!
UWP vs SVSU
Just like JMU, we played Saginaw Valley last year as well and we lost to them in overtime in Saturday play. It was a disappointing way to end the game as the win would have put us in the championship bracket. We hoped to redeem ourselves from last year’s loss at this year’s nationals.
Unfortunately, either due to physical or mental exhaustion from playing JMU right before (or both), we did not perform how we wanted to against Saginaw. Over the spring semester, we integrated drills that exhausted us with the intention of teaching us how to play smart while tired. We also focused on building endurance at our skills practices, but these practices were not mandatory. So while some of our players were building endurance, others were not which prevented the team from growing as a unit.
We started off strong, moving as a team and only occasionally throwing without a blocker. If I could add sarcasm, I would add it here. The center players applied pressure well which allowed us to execute swift counters and return to our baseline. The first point looked good when it started, but our teamwork started to slack which allowed poor habits to sneak into our gameplay. We ended up giving up four points before earning one, and in the end we couldn’t secure another. The game ended with a score of UWP 1-SVSU 4.
UWP vs GSU
We played GSU twice–last on day one and first on day two. Our first game against them occurred after a one-game break where we refereed. This gave us a little bit of time to rehydrate and eat something. This was the first game of the tournament where we weren’t sure of what to expect. Much like other teams we have played, GSU likes to throw crosses, but this doesn’t mesh well with our bad habit of throwing in front of our blockers. This resulted in several outs. We were fortunately able to maintain ball control which diminished the chances of getting hit by a cross, but it made us overly confident to attack without coverage. One upside is we did well with only throwing from one side each time we attacked. Our court awareness is rather selective. By the end of the first point, we were displaying throwing in proper rotation while setting up team throws. The rest of the game played out very similar to the first point–so similar, in fact, that we gave up two points to them before finishing the game. The final score was UWP 4-2 GSU.
Day two started off against GSU bright and early in the morning. After an okay night’s rest, we had the energy to focus on our style of play and practice our good habits. Our counters were fast, and we remained relatively level across the court. Additionally, our on-court communication was much better that morning than it was the day prior, resulting in throws being made behind blockers and adequate coverage provided. We had GSU up at half-court most of the time while we got to sit back on our back line. It was quite refreshing to see the team move up as a unit, reset the attack, and continue as a unit. In the end, we only gave up one point to them on day two with the final score being UWP 5-1 GSU.
UWP vs UNG
Game two of day two was against the other Georgia team, UNG. In my humblest opinion, UNG is one of the most fun teams I have ever played. They are truly there to have fun in every game they play, and their sportsmanship should be applauded. It was also refreshing to see another woman playing pinch.
Even though it was the second game and we were tired, we maintained our composure and kept playing our style. There were a few obstacles we had to overcome during this game like the number of court lines that were confusing or even missing and the hard-to-grip balls from both teams. Even with these handicaps, both teams played hard in the semifinals, and the final score came out to UWP 4-0 UNG. I just want to praise UNG one more time for being such good sports and for playing their hardest!
UWP vs WMU
This game was the one that could make it all–the consolation championship! This was the game that hurt us last year when we lost against CSU, the current hosts, in the last minute of play. We had everything to lose in this game, both figuratively and literally.
The atmosphere was tense because both teams were determined to not give up the championship to the other. We started off a bit unorganized with uneven sides and improper throws. Luckily these mistakes didn’t result in any outs right away, and we were eventually able to fall back into our rhythm. WMU, to our benefit, rarely ran into their throws or used a blocker, and this allowed us to powerfully counter and run them down. But like all our other matches (ever) we forgot to check across the court and we got crossed several times. And like our other matches, once we start to drop in numbers, our strategy goes out the window. We start to throw from both sides, we throw in front of or without a blocker, and we miss easy blocks.
We gave up two points in the first half but scored one with a minute-thirty-four rolled over. This point gave us a bit of a boost for the second half, and we were able to score two more points with just under ten minutes left in the game. The score was UWP 3-2 WMU, and we were determined to score one more before the end of the day. Unfortunately, our confidence came back to bite us, and we gave up one more point with just under five minutes left on the clock. Thankfully, we managed to run the timer out which pushed the game into over time.
OT was the most stressed I was all weekend, and I know my teammates felt the same. Our 6 best players had all the pressure on their shoulders to hopefully not repeat our loss in the consolation championship game once again. We not only wanted to win the bracket, but we had a responsibility to make our graduating members’ last tournament a good one.
After an agonizing five minutes and several team throws from our vets, Nicholas Stocks and Jalen Sims we were able to take the point and take the win! The final score came out to UWP 4-3 WMU OT.
Final Thoughts
This nationals we were able to accomplish several of our goals. We scored a point on each opponent; we won at least one game per day; and we won the consolation bracket! We were able to redeem ourselves from last year’s loss by pulling out the win in OT against WMU. But most importantly, we were able to pull out the win for our graduating members.
This tournament is just the beginning of the growth in store for UWP. Not only are we going to grow stronger as a co-ed team, but our women’s no-sting team is going to turn heads at their first ever national tournament.
Thank you to all our supporters, families, and friends who helped us get this far! We hope we made you all proud!
See you at No-Sting Nationals!
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