Despite ultimately being bested, the MSU Quidditch team went to the Sweet 16 this year in the eighth annual U.S. Quidditch World Cup, one of the best runs the team has had since it began.
Though Quidditch was created as a fictional sport, popularized in the Harry Potter series, students on MSU’s team take the game seriously.
“We far exceeded expectations this year,” food science senior Maria DeNunzio said.
Biochemistry and molecular biology and public policy sophomore Sarah Walsh said people often predict how well teams are going to do on online chats, and MSU did better than anyone expected them to.
Walsh is the chaser for the team, and her main goal as such is to score points by throwing a ball through one of three hoops.
The world cup was held in Rock Hill, South Carolina, last weekend and DeNunzio said MSU’s team went farther than any other Quidditch team from the Midwest.
“We did phenomenal this year, especially considering the team had a lot of injuries and a lot of first year players on the roster,” Walsh said.
DeNunzio, who is the team’s strength and conditioning coach, said this is the fifth year in a row MSU has made it into the world cup.
Out of around 300 U.S. teams, the top 80 in the country compete at the world cup, said zoology senior Meyessa Mansour, adding it was a good experience to make it to the Sweet 16 during her last year on the team.
The team got through the preliminary rounds 4-to-1, but lost in the Sweet 16 to a team from Texas, said Mansour, a chaser.
DeNunzio said everyone did really well in the tournament, especially since only 24 teams make it into bracket play.
The MSU Quidditch team has 21 varsity players, DeNunzio said, adding that it’s a competitive process to get onto the team.
Mansour describes Quidditch as a combination of rugby and dodgeball, with seven players on the field, and every goal is worth 10 points.
There are three chasers, two beaters, and one keeper, Walsh said, and a seeker who comes into the game 18 minutes into play at the same time the snitch is sent in.
The snitch is a person dressed in yellow, with a tail that the seekers have to catch to earn the team an extra 30 points and finish the game, Mansour said.
Most games last 25 minutes, but depending how good the snitch is, a game could go on for almost an hour, Walsh said, adding snitches are usually volunteers, who are wrestlers or cross-country runners.
The world cup tournament lasted for two days, ending Sunday night with The University of Texas-Austin winning for the third year in a row, DeNunzio said.
As one of the coaches, DeNunzio said she appreciated the work the team’s four seniors — Meyessa Mansour, Isaak Willard, Kevin Fennell and Bobby Casler — put into the tournament.
