On Sept. 28, seven college quadball teams from the New England region came to Brandeis for Openers, an unofficial tournament hosted by the Massachusetts Quadball Conference (MQC). The purpose of Openers is to give new players real-game experience without the pressure of immediately needing to produce results. This year, no team needed the Openers experience more than Brandeis, who are coming off of the best year in the program’s history. With captains Eli Fighter ’25 and Ben Lambright ’25 leading the way, Brandeis Quadball completed an undefeated run through MQC, capping their season with two lopsided victories against Boston University and securing Brandeis’ first D1 championship in quadball. Additionally, Brandeis matched their best result on the national level, finishing in the top eight. However, seniors like Fighter and Lambright made up much of the team’s numbers, contributing to their overwhelming success.
As a result, Brandeis Quadball is looking to rebuild their team. An engaged freshman class has allowed them to keep their numbers up and remain in the competitive fray, but they are far from the favorites they were a year ago. This is mainly due to a lack of experience. Experience is everything in quadball, and with new captains Ryan Callaghan ’27 and Oren Weinstein ’28 only possessing one year of quadball experience each, many analysts in the ranking community pegged Brandeis to drop significantly from the lofty heights of 2024-25.
At Openers, Brandeis proved that despite their lack of experience, they could still compete with the best in the sport. Alexander Wicken ’23 and Swathi Mannem, two members of Boston Forge, a Major League Quadball team, have stepped up in their coaching roles to allow Brandeis’ new players to flourish. With so many new players on the team, the coaches were able to effectively allocate playing time to ensure that every player was able to contribute to the team’s success.
Pumped up and ready to go with a “Roll Deis,” Brandeis came out swinging in their first game against Emerson College. Emerson’s team was significantly smaller than that of Brandeis, but their players were incredibly athletic and more experienced. Brandeis remained unfazed, surviving an early onslaught from chasers Ryan Leary and Amiri Rivera Sillah, as goals from Weinstein, Matan Schwartz ’27 and rookie Golan Altman-Shafer ’29 helped Brandeis build a 40-30 lead. Emerson responded, with Leary and Rivera Sillah scoring a combined three more goals with the help of beater Megan Brown. Brandeis could only muster one goal in response, coming from rookie Isaac Halpern ’29. The scores were 60-50, Emerson. Towards the end of the first half, Emerson called a timeout to give their tired players a breather. Brandeis, energized with their larger roster and determined to take back some momentum, finished off the half with a four-goal run to take back the lead, 90-60. The Brandeis beaters were crucial during this run, as they were able to keep Emerson beaters out of the play and open up opportunities for the Brandeis chasers to score. Again, a Brandeis rookie stepped up, as Jakub Prohaska ’29 was able to finish off his first goal of the season to end the half. Moving into the second half, Brandeis faced even more adversity, as Emerson caught the snitch, which gave them an instant three-goal swing, tying the game at 100, meaning that the first team to score five goals would win the game. This time, it was Schwartz and rookie Norah Chevathamanon ’29 who were able to score four unanswered goals in response, putting Brandeis within one goal of victory. At this point, Rivera Sillah of Emerson attempted to take the game into his own hands, scoring three unanswered goals on his own for Emerson, before Schwartz was able to finish off the game by dunking the ball over Rivera Sillah, giving Brandeis a 150-135 victory. It is worth noting that while Brandeis actively made an effort to give their rookies opportunities, Emerson’s offense was centered around Leary and Rivera Sillah. Out of Emerson’s 10 goals, two came from Leary and eight came from Rivera Sillah; it seemed they were focused on winning the game rather than developing their rookies, which is the purpose of the tournament. Brandeis had six players score goals, four of whom were rookies.
Brandeis’ next game against Harvard University was significantly tougher. Against the skilled trio of Kevin Hu, Elisa See and Jason Wang, Brandeis struggled to match Harvard’s speed and physicality. Although Harvard took more penalties than Brandeis, they were able to score almost at will, while Brandeis was only able to muster three quadball goals over the course of the game, although they all came from different sources, as Prohaska, Wesley Wei ’26 and rookie Unique Zhang ’29 were all able to score. The bright spot in this game for Brandeis came during the snitch-on-pitch period, as beaters Callaghan and rookie Gabriel Shields ’29 were able to effectively protect Schwartz, who was seeking for Brandeis, leading to a quick snitch catch. All in all, it was a game to forget for Brandeis, with a final score of 160-65 favoring Harvard. However, it was another promising showing from Brandeis’ new players, and energy was still high going into the final game of the day.
Brandeis’ last game of the day was a rematch with their 2024-25 rivals, Boston University. Led by Boston Forge’s Zach Donofrio, BU Quadball was heavily favored to be the team to emerge from Brandeis’ shadow and win the D1 championship for MQC this year. As such, many believed that BU would be able to steamroll Brandeis at openers, a statement that revealed their aspirations for the season. Instead, Brandeis turned the game into a statement of their own intent, battling BU very closely when few thought they could. The combination of lockdown defense from Wei and bullish offense from Schwartz gave Brandeis an early lead. BU, not to be taken lightly, responded with three quick Donofrio goals to give BU a 30-20 lead. This early in the game, a defining moment already presented itself for Brandeis. Schwartz moved the ball to Weinstein behind BU’s hoops. At that moment, beater Ethan Lido ’27 made a play on a BU beater to open up a lane for Weinstein to drive into. Wei, on the opposite side of the field, made a fantastic cut, received Weinstein’s pass and scored. BU, wanting to respond quickly, sent the speedy Donofrio sprinting up the field. An excellent tackle by Schwartz got the ball on the ground, and Weinstein was able to pick up the loose ball and run it back the other way for a goal on the fast break. In the span of 15 seconds, Brandeis had gone from trailing by one to leading, and BU were on the back foot. Play remained tight going through the first half, as Weinstein, Schwartz, and Jack Zhao ’26 traded goals with BU chaser Evan Sciarabba. Among these goals was another fantastic team play involving Weinstein, Prohaska and Zhang, who was now in the beater game. As Prohaska carried the quadball near the middle of the field, a BU beater began to shift towards Weinstein’s position on the field, isolating Prohaska. Zhang, moving quickly, was able to sneak up behind the BU player and strip the dodgeball from them. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Prohaska drove towards the hoops and delivered a perfect pass to Weinstein, who finished off the play. To everyone’s surprise, Brandeis went into the second half leading BU, 80-70. The snitch-on-pitch period was hard and fast in this game, as BU responded to an early Halpern goal with two Donofrio goals. With the score tied 90-90, BU were able to catch the snitch, putting them within two goals of victory, while Brandeis still needed five. At this point, coaches Wicken and Mannem called for the team to slow down the pace of play, knowing that Brandeis did not have any room for error. The combination of calm, calculated offense and physical, communicative defense provided Brandeis with a 40-10 run, with goals coming from Weinstein, Wei and Schwartz. At the last second, BU came up with a big stop on defense, then dealt with Brandeis’ aggressive beater pressure on offense, and Donofrio was able to end the game for BU, giving them a 145-130 win. However, relative to preseason expectations, Brandeis overperformed. Rookie standouts were all over the scoresheet, as well as in the beater game and although they may not be the favorites of MQC anymore, they showed at Openers that they can still compete with the very best in the region.
Next, Brandeis Quadball will ship out to Troy to do battle with RPI and Rutgers in their first official games of the season. With the entire league on notice, this young but exciting Brandeis team looks to kick off their season with a BANG, BANG, BANG!
