Preview
Midwest Monday: the Darkhorses
As USQ prepares for its “inaugural” season, the three of us decided it would be interesting to write a small article highlighting the top 10 teams in the organization’s largest region: the Midwest.
As USQ prepares for its “inaugural” season, the three of us decided it would be interesting to write a small article highlighting the top 10 teams in the organization’s largest region: the Midwest. As most things concerning Midwest analysis tend to go, we ended up writing more than enough to give you all no less than five articles, which will be released each week leading up to the Midwest’s two kick-off events: Ohio State’s Tournament of the Stars 2 and the Illinois State Firebirds Opening Day on Sept. 20. After the season gets underway, we’ll occasionally revisit these rankings and update them as the first half of the season gets closer to the Midwest Regional Championship on Nov. 9.
This week, the three of us each picked one team that fell just outside the top 10, but all three are the early-season dark horse contenders to break into the Midwest’s top-tier.
University of Missouri (Trevor Campbell): Suffering from long car rides and limited interaction with other teams, most people are quick to overlook the University of Missouri as a contender for the Midwest title. However, with dedicated players willing to make the trek to multiple tournaments, this team is quickly gaining the experience it needs to keep up with the top teams.
One of Missouri’s strengths is its willingness to play physical, hard-hitting games. Never letting a hit go unanswered, it is difficult to break this team, both physically and mentally. Although Missouri lost to Ball State University in last year’s Regional Championship in the only quarterfinal game out of snitch range (120-40*), the Tigers never gave into frustration. This determination and physical play could be the key to a successful 2014 run.
During World Cup VII, Missouri suffered from some graduations and injuries, ultimately leading to what some could say was an “underperformance” compared to what it is capable of. With a reportedly strong recruiting class coming in and the leadership of standout players in Josh Ebbesmeyer, Brett Smith, and Taylor Korte we can see these holes being filled. One of the most important positions Missouri needs to recruit is a seeker, since it lost all three of its pool play games in snitch range. The players have the willpower to keep games close, but they need a seeker in the ranks to close the deal. If this team can keep up its determined physical play as well as bring in a decent seeker, it is quite possible for Missouri to exceed expectations at the Regional Championship. Out of the three “dark horses,” I definitely think that Missouri has the most likely chance of cracking the top 10.
Grand Valley State University (GVSU) (Eric Wasser): After a tough 150*-0 loss to the University of Michigan at home at its own tournament, Grand Valley as a team was hurt physically and broken spiritually. It was less than a month from World Cup VII, and things weren’t looking good for the last team from the Midwest to qualify at the Regional Championship. What happened after the game, however, was like something out of a movie. Gabe Unick sat the players down in the mud and snow and and passionately appealed to them to buckle down for the coming weeks to avoid further embarrassment in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. and make the trip worth it.
I later had the opportunity to referee GVSU’s game against the Pot Four team in its World Cup pool, the University of Massachusetts, and the team had transformed in ways I had never expected. Organized, efficient, and disciplined, GVSU eventually pulled out of snitch range in what turned out to be a highly emotional and extended game due to the excellent snitching of Austin Lillis. While UMass amassed multiple yellow cards and one red card, GVSU kept its cool and eventually became one of only two Pot Five teams to advance into the play-in round. If it can continue whatever practice regime it established, Grand Valley State is a solid bubble team that could pull an upset with a snitch catch from its more than capable seeker and captain Unick.
Miami University (David Hoops): This feels like the third season in a row that I’ve been an early-season believer in Miami, but I think this could be the strongest case the team has had yet. To get the bad out of the way, Miami will be losing beater Jeremy Ferlic, who is a critically underrated player in the region. Miami will additionally miss the services of chasers Kate Rapnicki and Nathan Garber, and one of its best quaffle players and seekers in Brendan Kelly. Also, barring a phenomenal recruiting class, Miami still lacks a true elite athletic talent to lean upon in close matches, something almost every team in our top 10 has. However, Miami has a big advantage over some of the other second-tier teams in the Midwest in its program’s very long history. Miami’s team has a great reputation on its own campus and never struggles to get the numbers to create a roster (and sometimes two), and it should have plenty of players waiting to fill these empty shoes.
On top of Miami’s large and internally successful program, it was numbingly close at World Cup VII with a surprise 3-1 pool play record and favorable matchup to advance into the Round of 32. Missing snitch grabs while up one goal against New York University and Carleton University put an otherwise positive World Cup performance in an unfairly negative light. Its out of range loss to Villanova Community Quidditch was also much more competitive than the 180-110* scoreline indicates, as Villanova slowly pulled away over the course of an exceptionally long match. Miami proved itself capable on multiple occasions last season of competing with any of the top teams in the region, and I’m going to peg this season as the one it bursts the bubble and takes one of the top five down.
Update: A previous version of this article incorrected stated that Gabe Unick was the captain of Grand Valley State University. USQ regrets this error.
