Dobby Memorial Preview/Predictions
While Dobby Memorial got a little less interesting with the news of Ball State dropping, it still offers some of the best teams in the region, and provides with our first official matches since the Midwest Regional Championship. Let's dive into these pools and take a closer look at how this tournament could shake out.
Pool A: BGSU, BMQC, Rochester, Indiana, Mighty Bucks
The key matchup in this pool is obviously BGSU vs BMQC. BGSU is currently sitting pretty at 2-0 vs Blue Mountain, both wins coming at Tournament of the Stars, way back on September 20th. Both of these teams have evolved since then, and become better. That's where this matchup gets interesting. BMQC was without Team USA beater, Ashley Calhoun, at TOTS, and were basically a glorified merc team. At this point in the season, BMQC has played together a lot, and started looking like an incredibly dangerous team. With limited numbers at the Last Minute Tournament a few weeks ago, BMQC shook off the rust and escaped against MSU after letting them hang around for far too long, and then turned around and dominated a Ball State team missing Mac Randolph and Kevin Conboy, by the score of 220*-10.
BGSU, on the other hand, maintained it's usual excellence, flowing through captain Daniel Daugherty. Without Daugherty at LMT, BGSU seemed to struggle, defeating Miami before losing to Michigan. Should Daugherty be present at Dobby, which I fully expect him to be, look for BG to be their usual, well-oiled machine. One thing to note that really hurts BGSU is the loss of Jenna Rindler to a torn ACL. That injury, I believe, coupled with BMQC's emergence and addition of some excellent talent in the form of Cannon Barnard, swings this matchup in Blue Mountain's favor. I expect BMQC to come away with the victory, unless this game gets dragged out, where depth almost always works against Blue Mountain.
Pool A Standings: BMQC (4-0), BGSU (3-1), Rochester (2-2), IU (1-3), Mighty Bucks (0-4)
Pool B: Ohio State, CMU, MSU, OU, Falcon Warriors
In my mind, there is a clear number one team in this pool in Ohio State, and I don't expect that to change at all. It's the other positions in the pools that get interesting. CMU and MSU could go either way, as could OU and Falcon Warriors. The emergence of Jack Slater really helps CMU's beater lines, as he and Brandon Booth couple with Becca Bennett to form an aggressive, in-your-face beating style. This, along with the loss of Nic Dziadosz for Michigan State, could really shift the balance in CMU's favor. In what is really a tossup, I favor CMU.
The other interesting matchup is OU vs Falcon Warriors. Falcon Warriors won the head-to-head at regionals, allowing them to qualify for World Cup over the Bobcats. Falcon Warriors and BG have shifted a few pieces around, and I think it has made the Falcon Warriors a stronger team, capable of putting up more points. They retain an advantage in the beaters, which leads me to believe that they will defeat OU and claim the 4th spot in this pool.
Pool B Standings: OSU (4-0), CMU (3-1), MSU (2-2), Falcon Warriors (1-3), OU (0-4)