The sport of Quidditch is full of excitement and plenty of strong competition. The Quidditch team here at Case Western Reserve University, CWRUcio has begun their play this season with a 2-3 start but have, with their losses, come against some of the top talent in the newly formed Great Lakes Region.

For those unfamiliar with the sport of Quidditch, the sport is based on the magical sport of the same name in the Harry Potter book series. Players play with brooms between their legs and try to pass the Quaffle, a volleyball, between their chasers (three players) and score through one of their opponent’s three-ring-sized goals. This is coupled with attempting to dodge the bludgers (dodgeballs) that send them spiriting back to their own goal in order to return to play. Two players are beaters working to knock out the opposing team and protect their own players. Each team also has a keeper, which tries to block the other team’s chasers from scoring, and finally a seeker from each team who tries to catch the Golden Snitch for an additional 30 points to their team and end the game.

CWRUcio kicked off their season two weeks ago with a four team tournament at the College of Wooster. The CWRU squad beat Wooster A by the narrow score of 80-70 before dropping their games to both Wooster B by a score of 190-70 and to University of Toledo 140-20. While CWRU is a Tier Two squad, and therefore not eligible to compete in the Quidditch World Cup, both Wooster and Toledo have in the past competed at the national level as Tier One teams.

The team then followed up this performance by splitting games against Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). After strong performances against teams which are larger and more physical, the small size, speed and technical excellence of the CMU team, who are also Tier One, was a shock. CWRUcio dropped the first game before rebounding in the second. “We were overconfident heading into the game I think,” said Ryan Cleary, one of CWRUcio captains, “but we made adjustments and had we held off the snitch capture a little longer I think we could’ve won both games.”

The team will focus on their beaters as they head into this weekend’s three-game series vs the University of Ashland Ashwinders here at home. For those looking to catch some of the action the games start at 1 p.m. at the Throwing Field on the corner of Ford and Juniper.