Cleveland Riff aim to turn steady growth into results in 2026

A golden-goal opener against Toronto Raiders and a later sweep gave Cleveland Riff their clearest sign yet that the climb is real. After a 0-12 2024 season and a worst-ever points differential per game of minus-132.5, the Riff spent 2025 showing they could survive long enough to finish.

Cleveland is one of Major League Quadball’s original franchises, having entered the league in 2015 under manager Katie Milligan and coach Daniel Daugherty. That long timeline matters because the Riff’s 2025 gains were not a one-off burst from a new roster or a sudden tactical makeover. They moved from a 2-8 season in 2023 into the bottom in 2024, then used 2025 to reset the standard with a first-series win over Toronto, another important victory in North Division Championship play, and a return to the MLQ Championships for the first time since 2021.

The path to that better season was built in the margins. Toronto had swept Cleveland’s 2024 road trip 3-0, and the closest game in that set still landed 95 points apart. Chicago later pushed over 250 points in all three games against Cleveland, while Minneapolis and Detroit swept the Riff in both matchups at the North Division SuperSeries. Against that backdrop, even a single close finish carried more weight than a headline upset.

The 2026 roster shows how far Cleveland has moved from scraping by. The club lists more than 30 players, including Ashley Chow, Titus Chan, William Kozak, David Profusek, Evalien Duyvesteyn, Christian Marinescu, Jack Moseley, Jackson Neofes, Rae Barnes, Emma Meo, Jessica Link, Joseph Lombardi, Adrian Cheng, Jennifer Conard, Fiona Gaffney, Varun Krishna, Vivian Cox, Julio Perez, Emily Pekich, Robert Beaton, Delaney Lindberg, Kevin Oh, Tymir Bevel, Mykal Jones, Adam Thompson, Rose Mournighan, Marin Neill, Rachel Yates, Katie Volz and Jim Karas. The early reaction around that group has been positive, with the roster described as “looking nice” and getting started earlier than any other MLQ team.

That depth gives the Riff more ways to survive a difficult North Division weekend, where substitutions and the seeker release can tilt games late. Cleveland does not need a reinvention in 2026. It needs a few more clean series, fewer lopsided losses, and enough late-game control to turn steady growth into standings movement.