Players to Watch: Week Nine
Our last weekend of regular season play has arrived. Who are the athletes to watch? Find out!
The Kansas City Stampede have a chance to save their season with a sweep in their first home series of the summer against the League City Legends. To earn a qualification spot at the 2024 MLQ Championship, the Stampede will turn to their young keeper Ryan Mehio, who has been the best rookie in the league. Mehio leads his team with 25 goals and 10 assists, he is tied for sixth league-wide in scoring, and he is first among rookies, with the next best first-year players eight goals behind. Statistically, Mehio is even with veteran leaders like Peter Lawrence (BOS), having the kind of transformative impact that is reminiscent of past Creighton University stars for Kansas City. He will have the services of chaser Riley Usami at his disposal for the first time this season as the Stampede look to stay alive.
If the League City Legends can win a single game this weekend to stave off the challenge from the Kansas City Stampede and return to the MLQ Championship for the first time since 2021 (when all teams auto qualified due to the absence of the Toronto Raider and Ottawa Black Bears), they will owe a lot to chaser Mallory Hughes. Hughes has enjoyed a breakout season, scoring seven goals and becoming integral to the League City offense. She has provided spacing that the Legends have previously lacked and distributed the ball to dangerous places. On defense, she has 11 stops, tied for second on her team with chaser Swathi Mannem. Her tenacity at the hoops has allowed League City to play a variety of defenses and lock down its opponents, but she and the Legends will have one final test against the Stampede.
The Minneapolis Monarchs have been led by their beaters in 2024, and they have a blueprint for success against the Toronto Raiders that calls for a big beating performance once again. If they can execute the high press that the Detroit Innovators and the Chicago Prowl used so effectively against the Raiders, the Monarchs should have no problem securing third place in the North Division and a play-in bracket bye. Requiring speed, field awareness, and one-v-one skills, beater Nathan Podolsky seems particularly up for the task for Minneapolis. He has been aggressive in 2024, resulting in the second-best plus/minus on the team behind beater Zeke Majeske in almost twice as many possessions. Podolsky has a chance to put his imprint on the division this weekend.
Some of the Toronto Raiders’ best spells against the Chicago Prowl came with experienced veteran beater Brittany Taylor on the pitch. She had a solid stretch of dodgeball control with her beating partner Derek Taylor with flag runner on pitch in game one, as Toronto’s bubble proved difficult to pop. But the Raiders will have to plan better for dealing with a high press defense against the Minneapolis Monarchs. To help provide the solution, Taylor will look to translate her skills from the flag runner game to escorting Toronto’s ballcarriers up the pitch. She entered the weekend leading her team in drives played and second in average dodgeballs with 1.50.
Beater Kieran Collier is traveling north of the border alongside a full strength Boston Forge beating corps to face off against the Ottawa Black Bears, with the chance to cement a stellar season for the Boston beaters. Collier is second in the league to their teammate Tom DeMouth in average dodgeballs with 1.71 in double the number of possessions and tenth league-wide in plus/minus at +22. Along with their beating partner Leeanne Dillmann, they have prevented a dropoff after longtime star beaters Max Havlin and Lulu Xu, always an impressive feat. They give the Forge the beating depth to be title contenders for the first time since 2022 — and perhaps Boston’s best chance since they won the Benepe Cup in 2019.
The Ottawa Black Bears beaters face a tall task against the Boston Forge this weekend, but they will be playing at home for the first time this season and they have shown the potential to compete with some of the best in the East Division throughout the summer. Beater Alexander Rivoche will lead the way for the Black Bears. Rivoche has 11 stops, first on his team and tied for 14th in the league, a significant achievement on a team that has struggled to win games. Only Peter Brechting (CLE), Kody LaBauve (CLT), Josh Mansfield (NO), and Baldemar Nunez (LC) have more among beaters on teams with losing records. At 21 years old, Rivoche and his 20-year-old teammate Zach Reiken are players to watch for this weekend and the future.
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