Antwerp QC, Much of Belgian Core, Leaves Competitive Quidditch


This weekend will display a plethora of Midwest talent as Indianapolis Intensity (3-0) takes on Cleveland Riff (0-0) in the Ohio team’s premiere match.

Coming off of a convincing 3-0 series victory over the Detroit Innovators last week, Intensity is looking to continue to dispel early season doubts about its ability to compete at a high level.

Intensity builds largely off of the Ball State University’s 2014-15 roster, with 16 players hailing from the university team. This has allowed the players to capitalize on an established passing game and chemistry that many other teams will lack early in the season. Sporting the least diverse roster in the entirety of MLQ, it will be interesting to see if Intensity’s early advantage carries the squad to further successes or if the ability of other teams to bring in all stars from multiple schools and community teams will eventually overtake them.

Riff sports a powerful roster, largely composed of reigning Midwest champions from Ohio State University and regional runner-up Bowling Green State University. Anchored on defense by an intimidating beating corps featuring Max McAdoo (Bowling Green), Matt Eveland (Ohio State), Julie Fritz (Ohio State) and Stephanie Raudenbush (Miami University), Riff should be able to slow most of Indianapolis’ offensive possessions outside of the keeper zone, covering its lack of physically defensive chasers and keepers.

The Cleveland team’s offense this weekend is also enormously impressive-looking on paper, with David Hoops (Ohio State) serving as primary keeper and chasers such as Jeremy Boettner (Ohio State), Matt Dwyer (Miami) and perennial Midwest all-star Daniel Daugherty (Bowling Green). Each are more than capable of exposing and relentlessly exploiting any defensive flaws. Overall, the roster for Riff’s opening weekend is well-composed and, provided proper organization and sufficient practice, ought never to be taken out of snitch range nor trailing after the opening minutes of any of the three games.

If Intensity wants a repeat of last weekend’s sweep, beaters Alex Leitch (Blue Mountain Quidditch Club) and Tyler Walker (Ball State) are going to need to play hyper aggressive on offense to alleviate the pressure Eveland and company will be applying to the Intensity distributors. They will have tough angles on Hoops’ hoops if they hope to score from distance on the lanky, agile Buckeye keeper, but, if they are able to penetrate the outer shell of the Cleveland defense, then Indianapolis may be able to take advantage of his lack of physicality.

Overall, this match looks favorable for Cleveland, which will likely go 2-1, losing the first game in range and winning the second two out of snitch range.







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