It came down to overtime, and a one-player advantage, for the Grand Valley dodgeball club to be ousted in the semi-final match last weekend at the NCDA national tournament versus Saginaw Valley State University.

Hoping to come back with the title, the young team fell short after the host Cardinals caught and threw the Lakers out of the tournament, taking the 2-1 overtime victory and sending the Lakers to a third place finish.

“Playing at Saginaw, we knew it would be tough to play in their house and their court,” said senior Brian Savalle. “It truly came down to if we would have made one more catch or hit one more person, little minuscule things like that. We put everything on the court.”

The semi-final match wasn’t the Lakers only tough match, they faced the toughest playoff field that any Grand Valley team to date has had to play and according to junior team captain, Mike Trippiedi, it was some of the best dodgeball they have played all year.

On Saturday, the Lakers finished undefeated 3-0, outplaying their competitors. GVSU took out Bowling Green University, 1-0, Northwestern State (LA), 6-0, and DePaul University, 4-0. Trippiedi was happy with how the team played the entire tournament, but it just came down to tough playoffs that made the Lakers falter.

Starting off well Sunday, they easily won their first round against Western Illinois, 8-0. It wasn’t until the quarterfinal that they saw their first real competitor and a rematch of last year’s national title game against, Central Michigan University. Controlling the game most of the way the Lakers won, 2-1.

“It was a tough task,” Trippiedi said. “It was physically and mentally draining but it was one of the best games of dodgeball I have had the pleasure to be a part of.”

Only a few violations and minor mishaps caused the Lakers to fall early in the semifinal against Saginaw. They fought back and were able to tie the game, forcing it into a 10-minute overtime. It came down to the first team to score or whichever team has the most standing in the end. When the time expired, the Lakers had 11 players to Saginaw’s 12 on the court helping them advance them to the finals.

“It was really tough not to make it to the championship,” Trippiedi said. “The strides the team has made since the Michigan Dodgeball cup have been amazing. The hard work ever member of the club has put in made this national finish possible.”

Trippiedi couldn’t have been happier with the changes the club has made this year, but he wanted to send the four seniors out with a national title.

Even though the sting of the loss still hurts, the Lakers are looking forward to next year. Returning 16 of the 20 players on the national roster next year, they will be more than ready for revenge when the championships roll around again.

“We graduated all three of our captains last year and had a national roster filled with mostly first and second year players, because of these reasons we placed much higher than we were expected to,” said junior Dylan Fettig. “We had an amazing group of freshman this year and we are all looking forward to next year.”

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