Sparty On.

Michigan State University won the 2010 MSU Invite, their first in school history. The Spartans came out of Pool A undefeated, knocking off Depaul 12-0 and Bowling Green 4-2. In the finals they faced Western Illinois, whose captain Tim Wohead boldly proclaimed would go undefeated at the MSU Invite, and keep their perfect record intact. WIU got to the championship game by beating both Eastern Michigan and Kentucky in two close matches. However, the Spartans proved to be too much for the Bulldogs to handle, especially the power arms of Andrew Koczara and Andy Malnor. MSU won 7-0 in that final game.

Captain Ian Childs said of his team’s play “I am very happy that we were able to come out 3-0. But we still have a lot of work to do to achieve our overall goal of winning an NCDA title.”

In other games, BGSU was able to shut out Depaul 7-0 and beat Kentucky 3-2 in the third place game. The Falcons may be the most improved team in the league so far this season, and they certainly looked like a possible favorite to win the Ohio Dodgeball Cup this winter. Eastern Michigan got blanked by Kentucky 6-0, but defeated DePaul 3-2 in what was probably the match of the tournament. In that game, DePaul's Mick Cielesz single-handedly took down eight Eagles on his own, which tied up the game at 2-2, before Eastern was able to put away DePaul for good 3-2 with around three minutes left.

- Sam Hiller