< spring break, the Gods of Plastic (GoP) traveled to sunny Statesboro, Georgia to compete in College Southerns. Armed with a host of new cheers and fresh legs, GoP took 9th place out of 40 competing teams.
GoP went 2-1 in pool play, facing off against North Central competitors Grinnell, Northern Iowa, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The first game of the day pitted GoP against Division III contenders Grinnell. Fortunately, Grinell wasn’t able to run with the play of handlers Kyle Markwalter ’13 and Daniel Barter ’14, as GoP cruised to a 15-10 victory.
Next up, GoP bested an athletic UNI team with next-level playing by Anders Berglund ’15 and Ian Fischer ‘15 in the final moments of the game. Running its offense through Fischer, GoP ended the game on a 5-1 run to win, 15-12.
To end pool play, GoP lost to a good UW-M team by a score of 14-8, setting up a game against Georgia College, a perennial D-III power. While the winner would receive a berth into the championship bracket, the loser was relegated to the consolation round. This game was among the most intense games this writer has ever played in. Georgia College relied on two star players to exploit mismatches, but GoP threw their best defenders on them in Alex Walker ’12, Will Gagne-Maynard ’13, and captain Rhys Lindmark ’13. The game went all the way to universe point, but GoP ultimately prevailed, 16-15. Thus concluded day one.
Day Two saw GoP lose to eventual champion Ohio State before winning on universe point against Princeton, a team that also features a member of the Rogers family on its roster (though the family is most famous for its first son, Peter ’13). In all, GoP is proud of the work it accomplished at Southerns, but knows that there is still much work to be done in order to bring home the hardware at D-III Nationals in May.