Fresh from the Field: Brandeis

By: Grant Hillyer

Brandeis Team Review and Preview

Brandeis University had a strong 2019-2020 season and proved themselves to contenders for the Massachusetts Quidditch Conference Division 2 (MQC D2) Championship. Buoyed by the play of their older players, the team finished in second place in MQC D2 at the fall semester before clinching a third place spot to end the year. Coached by former MLQ Boston player and former MLQ Boston Assistant Coach and Practice Squad Coach, Sheldon Bostic, and former MLQ Boston Assistant Coach and current MLQ Boston player, Tyler Beckmann, Brandeis will be focusing on replacing a multitude of graduated seniors.

“Jeremy Goodsnyder was the team’s starting keeper and was a large part of the team’s offense. His talent to consistently drive and shoot was a staple of Brandeis’ offense, as was his skill to drive through defenders.”

Recent Graduates 

Brandeis University graduated seven players coming into this year. Many of them took major minutes on the team, and replacing them will definitely be a major part of Brandeis’ season. On the beater side, Aaron Stone and Evan Soloman have both exited the program. Stone was a MLQ Boston practice squad player and was described as the heart and soul of the program. On defense, his aptitude to win beater engages and clear out chasers quickly and from long-range effectively shut down opposing offenses. He showed similar skills on offense, often winning engages that enabled his chasers to take drives and forcing bludger control turnovers. Evan Soloman had similar abilities and was active at clearing out chasers and opposing beaters to set up the offense. Soloman also had strong catching skills that came in handy while playing defense and during snitch on pitch, in which he played a lot of minutes throughout the year. In fact, both Soloman and Stone ranked in the top 5 in MQC in bludger control turnovers forced, which goes to show how active they were at taking battles and their aptness to work well with their partners. 

Brandeis will also be entering this year without a number of chasers. Jeremy Goodsnyder was the team’s starting keeper and was a large part of the team’s offense. His talent to consistently drive and shoot was a staple of Brandeis’ offense, as was his skill to drive through defenders. Goodsnydner’s role on defense was just as impressive. At keeper, he would often block shots, but his differentiating skill was his prowess in making hits and slowing down opposing drivers. Replacing Goodsnyder might be a tall ask for Brandeis to pull off this year. 

Nathaniel Dimick and Viking Mayor also graduated from the team, and both played big roles in Brandeis’ aggressive and high-pressure defense. Mayor played point-defender a number of times for Brandeis and his aggressive style slowed down opposing drivers. Mayor was also capable of driving and creating offense on his own. Dimick offered similar strengths, with an ability to drive and shoot as well as apply tons of pressure high upfield to opposing drivers. Eleanor Kelman and Hinde Lichir also graduated from the program, opening up minutes for new wing players to step in.

 Beaters to Watch

When talking about beaters who will likely play big minutes for Brandeis this year, we have to start with Rebecca Hyman. Hyman got major playing time last year, taking minutes at both the free beater and engage position. She played with a range of partners, and was able to adapt to each playing style, demonstrating her knowledge of the game and a range of skills. When performing as a free beater on offense, she was extremely active, harassing opposing beaters and stealing bludgers. She showed similar attributes on defense as the beater without a ball, never letting opposing beaters walk up for free. When given a bludger on defense she was able to make big plays, forcing beats on quaffle players to slow down drives. On offense with a bludger, Hyman has the power to win battles and make space for her offense to operate as well. Hyman’s versatility and adaptability to play both the engage and free role is very impressive and definitely something that will help Brandeis switch things up against different opponents. 

“Hyman got major playing time last year, taking minutes at both the free beater and engage position. She played with a range of partners, and was able to adapt to each playing style, demonstrating her knowledge of the game and a range of skills.”

Another player to keep an eye on is Corey Brown, a beater and seeker. Brown played a lot last year, and will likely continue to get more minutes with Hyman. Brown showed an ability to make catches to win battles last year, as well as stay active without a ball. Like Hyman, I think Brown will probably play a little bit of both engage and free beater, giving Brandeis the versatility to give opponents different looks game to game or drive to drive. Adrian Koretsky is another beater who will be in the mix for Brandeis this year. Koretsky also played at both free and engage spots last year. As an engage beater, Koretsky’s beats set up looks for Brandeis’ chasers. As a free beater, Koretsky’s strength was finding the right spot, reacting and recovering bludgers after engagements finished. Brandeis also has Vidisha Jha, a player who spent time at free beater last year. Jha showed that she knows how to read the field and react, setting up Brandeis to get a bludger or two back on defense when playing on offense. This was especially apparent when Jha got to play snitch on pitch, as she knew how to position herself and when to focus on snitch vs. focus on quaffle play. 

Brandeis’ beater group offers a diversity of skills that will allow them to make matchup specific gameplans, but stay flexible on the fly. I really look forward to seeing how the different beater pairs play together and the different options they can deploy based on opponents and diverse situations. 

“An MLQ Boston player, Kowalski was a key part of Brandeis’ offense last year. Kowalski has many strengths as a player, including a consistent ability to find open space at hoops and score quickly.”

The Chasing Line

With seven graduations, Brandeis’ chaser line will look a lot different this year. However, Brandeis has a new guard ready to step in. That starts with Tess Kowalski. An MLQ Boston player, Kowalski was a key part of Brandeis’ offense last year. Kowalski has many strengths as a player, including a consistent ability to find open space at hoops and score quickly. The Goodsnyder to Kowalski connection was one that was strong last year, and produced a large portion of Brandeis’ goals, with Kowalski as a key finisher for Goodsnyder’s setups. Kowalski was also trained in two-armed tackling on the MLQ Boston team, which she will be able to use to her advantage as USQ has recently implemented two-armed tackling. She became increasingly physical on defense last season and two-armed tackling will only continue to allow her to increase her physicality. Look for Tess Kowalski to be one of Brandeis’ goal leaders this season. 

Taking the reigns of starting keeper will most likely be Dawson McNamara-Bloom. McNamara-Bloom showed a strong propensity to know when to take space and drive, as well as break tackles. McNamara-Bloom also showed that he can dish and distribute the ball to his wing and unmarked chasers as well as the ability to cut and get open once he had called an option and handed off the ball. These are all skills that will help Brandeis’ offense stay diverse. Bloom also had a number of blocked shots last year, something that will certainly aid Brandeis’ defense and allow them more opportunities on offense. Another strong chaser on the team who will get more playing time this year is Ian Mcarthy-Kelly. Mcarthy-Kelly showed an understanding of when to drive and pass last year as well, which should help Brandeis keep the ball moving around and prevent the offense from stagnating on drives. 

Recap of Last Season

On offense, Brandeis was fairly consistent last year, averaging seven goals a game, just one behind the national average.* Brandeis played a variety of different styles throughout the season, from a slower and more methodical approach versus RPI at MQC Meet 4 to a faster-paced game with an abundance of shot attempts and hard drives against Emerson at the MQC opener. I expect this to continue into the coming season as many of the players moving up to starting line roles have similar play styles to their graduated teammates, and important holdovers on the team like Tess Kowalski and Dawson McNamara-Bloom have skill sets that will allow Brandeis to give opposing teams different looks. On defense, Brandeis gave up 12 goals a game, three more than the national average*. In order for that number to come down, the new chasers on the team will need to slide in quickly and develop into strong defenders against the pass. Brandeis was able to handle drivers last year, but sometimes struggled with defending teams that forced rotations with lots of activity in the beating game and passes amongst chasers.

In the snitch game, Brandeis had a 29% catch rate when out of range (39% national average*) and 40% catch rate when in range (36% national average*). This disparity can be explained by two factors. The first being Brandeis’ drive to get back in range when out of range, forcing beaters to split their attention between snitch and quaffle. Another contributing issue may be Brandeis’s smaller rosters at a few tournaments over the year. This forced some players to play entire games, harming the team’s overall effectiveness, especially at longer tournaments. The Brandeis beaters possess good decision making and positioning and set up seeker Adrian Korestky for contact and catch attempts. Several of those beaters are still on the team, so plan on Brandeis having similar levels of success during snitch on pitch again this year.

Looking Forward

Brandeis has the opportunity this year to develop a lot of new players. With seven graduations, I expect many new players on Brandeis to start to make a name for themselves as the team looks to compete for the MQC D2 Championship. They will compete against Middlebury College, Brandeis, UMass Amherst, Skidmore, Clark, and Brown University (formerly the Providence Ashwinders) for the chance to be promoted to MQC D1 if they win the Championship. The deciding factors for Brandeis will be how their returners fill in for their recently graduated teammates and the strength of their recruiting class. Last year, Brandeis lost their only game to first place finishers University of Vermont by 40 points. They also went 2-2 against Emerson, the second place finisher in D2, showing they have the capability to hang with the best of their immediate competition. 

Through their variety of beaters and accomplished chasers, expect this Brandeis team to be competitive in MQC D2 this season. They’ll need to take some time figuring out who the new defensive starters will be, especially if communication between players is still being worked on. This could lead to a few early losses to teams that feature heavy passing attacks, but I expect the Brandeis offense and seeker game to keep them in games while those potential growing pains are worked through. Brandeis last year displayed their ability to adjust to opponents with different game plans as well as their capacity to play with a limited set of players. Both those strengths should help them this year as rosters are in flux and teams across the league are given limited practice time due to the ongoing pandemic. 

*All statistics on national averages were pulled from FastBreak News’ game archives