After a perfect end to the first half of the season, the 5-0 Grand Valley State University club dodgeball team is preparing for the Chicago Dodgeball Open, hosted by DePaul University on Sunday.

“Being undefeated means that there really isn’t much we need to work on,” said senior dodgeball treasurer Brian Savalle. “We will always be working on our communication to make us even better. We can’t ask for more being undefeated at this point in the season.”

With a roster flush with veterans and youngsters, the team has spent the season focusing on bettering team play and working toward their end-of-season goals. The Lakers will be treating the next tournament as a warm-up for the Michigan Dodgeball Cup in February and National College Dodgeball Open in April.

“This tournament is going to be an eye-opener for us,” said GVSU junior and dodgeball president Dylan Fettig. “We are going to be playing several games in one day, which will prepare us for the eight games we have to play at nationals. This is just the beginning for the end of the season push to win it all.”

Instead of switching things up half-way through the season, the Lakers will be keeping their usual strategy of going hard for the first couple points to gain control of the game and letting the inexperienced players on the court to take a few shots.

With eight teams participating in next weekend’s tournament, the Lakers would love to stay undefeated, but team captain Mark Trippiedi is more concerned that his team stays close and minimizes mistakes.

“The team that wins nationals is going to have very little error in their game” said Trippiedi, a junior. “Next weekend, I am hoping we make fewer mistakes, like throwing away catches. That is a big momentum changer and we want to be able to control the game. Chicago will help strengthen our team play.”

With hopes of changing their power-play roles into more of a team act, they will have a chance to go against some of the best teams in the Midwest. Other then DePaul, the teams in attendance will be Western Kentucky University, Saginaw Valley State University and a new powerhouse, Moody Bible Institute.

The Lakers will be bringing their A-game against opponents on Sunday on DePaul’s campus.

“We are ecstatic to play in Chicago,” Fettig said. Its will be really nice to go out of state to play teams we don’t normally play. The more experience we get, the more practice we get for nationals. We are in it to win it.”

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