Fast Takes With Fast Break: Chicago Prowl vs Minneapolis Monarchs

Float like a Butterfly, Scratch like a Cat

Authors: Ashton Butler and Nathan Podolsky

Matchup History

Since Minneapolis joined the league in 2019, their matchups with the Indianapolis Intensity/Chicago Prowl franchise has been a history of runs. An Intensity sweep in 2019 preceded six straight Monarch victories in 2021 and 2022 before the newly minted Prowl reasserted their dominance in 2023 and 2024. No game between the two teams has been within 30 goals since the sport was called Quidditch. Entering this season, Minneapolis has reloaded their roster for another shot at a division title, adding multiple former Stampede players to their lineup. Chicago lost a few of their 2024 pieces, but the additions of Sol Alexander and Justin Cole along with Matt Brown’s return have stopped any bleeding. With the Toronto Raiders’ forfeit, both teams are now guaranteed a top two finish in the division. That said, the stakes remain high; the winner takes the North Division and earns the privilege of picking their first round opponent in Buffalo.

Chicago Prowl

After a slower season for both Chicago and Minneapolis, they have made it to the top of the North Division to battle it out to see who will rule the North. The Monarchs have not taken a game out of this series since Chicago’s move from Indianapolis, but with a much improved roster this season, including key additions Ryan Mehio and Bitzy Archibold, we will see if the matchup will be closer. 

Chicago has sharpened their claws in their two previous series, both won in dominating fashion. The Prowl currently leads the league in quadball point differential with a staggering 138.3. Their team has impressed in the chaser game both offensively and defensively. First, their offense has been incredibly efficient. They have 41 assists compared to just 28 turnovers. Their possessions have been ending with shots taken and it has led to them increasing in quadball points and limiting opposing fast breaks. Their defense is currently in the top third of the league as well and would be much higher if not for Game 2 in their series against the Detroit Innovators. Chicago’s defense is heavily led by their point defender. The cycle of Nathan Digmann, Riley Andrews and Matt Troy in this position has been lethal towards opponents up top as they create immense pressure on shooters and essentially erase the opponent’s best up top chaser. However, the contributions of these stars were expected as we have seen this year after year. In addition, young additions such as Ariana Zhang have really shown to be crucial for the success of Chicago. In years past, Emma Vasquez was the consistent starter to play as the off-hoops chaser, and was critical to the team defense, and Zhang has filled this role beautifully with four stops in their Detroit series. 

The Chicago beaters to this point have been electric with the reintroductions of Matt Brown and Sol Alexander who were not on the roster in 2024. These two have not been scored on when they’re on the pitch together, and have contributed a total of 80 quadball points. Chicago’s beaters were also able to take on major challenges, such as USNT beater Ryan Hsu in their matchup with Detroit. Hsu had not fallen below a 1.83 average dodgeball in Detroit’s first two series in the season, but Chicago was able to hold Hsu to 1.39. The depth of the Chicago beating core is really strong with young folks to back up the studs such as Sohum Sharma and Leah Osbourne, which can make the difference in the moments that the big cats take their rest.

Minneapolis Roster Notes

Minneapolis is the only team from the North Division to have played one or fewer series so far this season. Detroit has played nine games; the Cleveland Riff, Toronto and Chicago have contested six apiece. That means that the roster the Monarchs bring for the weekend has had far fewer chances to play together this season than their opponents, particularly with a number of players making their season debuts this weekend. The good news, however, is that these debuts contribute to one of the strongest rosters the Monarchs have flown in a regular season since 2022.

On the quadball side, Alexander-Paul Ogbeide (OB), Cecelia Voth and Bitzy Archibold will take the field for the first time this summer. In particular, OB provides a driving strength that the Monarchs lacked in their opener against Detroit and Archibold provides a finishing touch at the hoops that is unmatched across the league. These three will complement a set of veteran Monarch chasers that include Sam Schwartz, Max Meier, Terry Carlson and Addie Sobczak as well as younger returners Phoebe Thomas, Brady Charles and Joe Goulet. Against the Innovators, their offense was the Ryan Mehio-Goulet show; the two led the team with 20 assists and 10 goals, respectively. In order to succeed against Chicago, though, they must include more of their players in the typical offensive possession. Drawing the Prowl defense out of position will prevent the strong Chicago point defenders from singlehandedly shutting down an offense.

The Monarch beater corps is a much larger question mark entering the series. Against Detroit, not a single beater averaged more than 1.33 dodgeballs. In fact, four of their eight beaters averaged one or fewer dodgeballs across all their drives. There are two reinforcements on this side of the ball: Ryan Cleary and Nathan Podolsky will be added into the rotations. For Minneapolis to have any success against Chicago, finding the beater pairs who can hold control and fight off high presses is imperative. Against a stronger divisional foe, holding one or fewer dodgeballs throughout the first half of a game is a death sentence. Expect to see a mix of combinations and short shifts that keep fresh legs on the field as long as possible. In particular, the aggressive Creighton style that Cleary brings to the position should offer a new look that previous Monarch iterations have lacked and the Prowl may not be prepared for.

Matchups to Watch

Ryan Mehio (MPLS, 71) vs Darian Murcek-Ellis (CHI, 14) 

A version of this matchup played out during the USQ season at Crescent City Invitational and it did not disappoint. In their closest game of the entire season, the Warriors escaped TCQC, winning 170-165. A Mehio midrange shot to bring the game to golden goal was immediately followed by a game winning tall-hoop dunk by DME. This weekend, we should see the two go against each other on the field again. Whichever finds the more effective way to elevate the players around them should find themself on the winning team. 

Nicole Nelson (MPLS, 22) vs Sol Alexander (CHI, 33)

Two players out of the Minnesota-area Quadball programs, Nelson and Alexander are both effective beaters that play opposite styles despite their shared history. Alexander tends to play to their speed, stepping outside the immediate defensive zone to apply pressure while looking primarily for catches and dodges when unarmed. On the flip side, Nelson plays much more for field positioning and takes full advantage of her physicality to harass opposing beaters, especially when she does not have a ball. Both are likely to see heavy minutes anchoring their team’s beater lines, so the winner of the plus-minus battle will boost their team’s chances.

Brady Charles (MPLS, 78) vs George Blackwell (CHI, 1) 

The former Columbia College teammates (and Tad Walters students) will meet as opponents for the first time. Blackwell has found success playing behind the hoops for the Prowl with a laser-like push shot and saw key minutes during their second-place finish at MLQ Championships in 2024. Charles tends to play with the ball in his hands in front of the hoops but has not had as much success breaking into the Minneapolis chaser rotations. Each player is a key look at the future of the two franchises.

Cody Narveson (MPLS, 0) vs Matt Brown (CHI, 10) 

Narveson, the North Division 2022 MVP and Brown, the 2023 MVP, are Midwest veterans who have matched up against each other in USQ and MLQ as far back as the mid 2010s. In fact, both were on Midwest college programs that made Final Four runs in the USQ era before the college-club split (Narveson for Minnesota in 2012 and Brown for Ball State in 2016). Given that both players are their team’s go-to beaters as soon as the flag runner enters the field, whichever finds their highest level after 20 minutes should create the openings their seeker needs to shift a game’s outcome. 

Cecelia Voth (MPLS, 8) vs Melanie Rolfe (CHI, 77) 

Voth and Rolfe share an innate scoring instinct on offense and have the skills to back that mentality up. For one thing, no player in the league has a more lethal pump fake from the top of the keeper zone, particularly while hovering in front of either of the side hoops. Moreover, neither Voth or Rolfe will shy away from taking space all the way up to a hoop and dunking through a defender when the opportunity presents itself. If either player finds the zone on Saturday and gets fed the ball around the hoops, they are hat trick threats on any shift and can pull defensive resources away from their more well-known teammates.

Series X-Factors

Can Minneapolis handle the Prowl Push©?

In 2023 and 2024, the first game of the Monarchs-Prowl matchup followed the same script. It was a back and forth affair for one shift, where each team struggled to find their flow. Then, Chicago opened up a five goal lead with a dominant run and never looked back.

• In 2024, from 20-20 in Game 1, the Prowl scored five goals in a row.

• In 2023, after the Monarchs fought to a 40-30 lead in Game 1, the Prowl scored seven of the next eight goals.

Both seasons, the ability of Chicago to solidify dodgeball control for entire shifts at a time and then apply pressure at the top of their defensive zone created a barrier that the Monarchs could not fly through, often leading to an easy fast break goal the other way. This was on display against Detroit two weeks ago; the score stood at 60-10 fewer than 10 minutes into the game. Keep an eye on the flow of the first game for the first three shifts. If Minneapolis comes out with a fire under them and withstands Chicago’s initial onslaught, they will keep the game — and the series — close. If Chicago wins the battle for dodgeballs and successfully presses their advantage, the score will quickly get out of hand.

Who can play their offense through the wings most effectively?

There’s no doubt that star names litter each team’s roster in the quadball game. However, the past two years have proven that Chicago can pull further down their depth chart for contributions. In particular, their ability to play their offense through chasers such as Ally Peachey and Emma Vazquez has stumped the Monarch defense time and time again. Given that neither is playing this weekend, Chicago must ask a different set of chasers to step up. Mae Overholt and Ariana Zhang were critical pieces in sweeping the Innovators with Kailey Fugate’s contributions ensuring the offense flowed smoothly.

On the other side of the field, previous Monarch iterations have undergone identity crises when the ball was not firmly in Meier’s hands. Their past inability to move the ball efficiently between the vertices of their offense has led to a stagnant attack. This allowed Chicago’s beaters to key in on only one or two players per possession without giving up space. This weekend, players such as Schwartz, Voth and Carlson will need to shoulder a larger load of the offense than last summer. The addition of Mehio and Archibold should also alleviate a portion of the burden that Meier has previously borne and provide a new look to the Monarch attack.

In the big picture, Chicago has dominated the scoring percentage for two years running, not because of superior skills, but because of better ball movement and flexibility of their point of attack. If this trend continues, half court possessions will again favor the Prowl. If Minneapolis can reverse the current, the entire dynamic of the matchup will transform.

Who will have the advantage during flag runner on pitch?

Across six games from 2023-2024, Chicago caught the flag four times while Minneapolis pulled only once. Beyond that, however, the Prowl also scored more quadball goals after 20 minutes in all six games. If the series is to be competitive, Minneapolis needs to find success after halftime.

Monarch fans should be optimistic, though. Goulet — the USNTDA seeker who secured a Nations Cup win and was arguably a snub from the World Cup roster — has two years more experience and skills to draw on. He will battle Nojus Ausra and Melton for the critical 35 points. Furthermore, the additions of Mehio, Archibold and Denay Hering in the quadball game immediately boost the Monarchs chasers’ ability to produce goals and generate stops while the beaters focus on the flag runner. They have their work cut out for them against excellent 4 v 4 chasers on the Prowl side: Digmann, Murphy, DME and Liam Zach III will not make anything easy.

On the beater side, Brown and Alexander have the uncanny ability as a pair to build an impenetrable wall around the flag; take a look at their regional semifinal game (playing with Boom Train) versus BosNy for an idea of their prowess. For Goulet to have a shot at catching, it may be up to a mix of Nelson, Narveson, Cleary and Meredith McDowell to find a way to pry the field open and give their seeker a clean look. Given the lethal combination of Mehio and Meier that Minneapolis can insert at chaser after 20 minutes, even playing well enough to prevent a catch may be sufficient for the Monarchs.

Prediction

Ashton’s Prediction: Chicago 3 - 0 Minneapolis