By Michael Burns/reporter
The teams gathered, the whistles blew and the volleyball tournament commenced.
SE Campus students participated in day one of a two-day intramural volleyball tournament Nov. 5 that featured tiebreakers and plunging spikes.
The tournament included 10 teams of four players.
The matches were played with rally scoring to 25, and the winner was the team who won two out of three games or had the highest score after 45 minutes.
In the first match, Mix Fruit defeated the Colts in three games. Mix Fruit won the first game 25-18 while the Colts won the second 25-21. The tie-breaking game ended by time limit with Mix Fruit victorious, 15-9.
Mix Fruit team captain Quoz Lee jokingly said that going into the game his team had the mentality of “we’re going to kill them.”
He credited his team’s win with the fact that they played with confidence.
Like athletes representing their sponsors after a game, Lee joked that his team would celebrate its win with a Heineken.
In the second match, Team Pie lost to Vteam, 25-8, 25-14. Vteam was a crowd favorite, and after every point scored, the crowd chanted in unison, “Ahhh boom!”
In the third match, the Show Stoppers played with the disadvantage of only three players. They lost to team BAMF!’s four-person team 25-18, 25-21.
Team Awesome proved to be just that in the fourth match beating Bebot, 25-12, 25-22.
Dad Gummit, winners of the fifth and final match, overcame To Tim For Seven, 25-11, 25-9.
“We practice, and we really like each other,” said Dad Gummit team captain Andrew Strahschein.
Strahschein said his goal was for everyone to have fun and walk away injury-free.
“I’m extremely satisfied with the turnout,” said Shahzad Nazir, health and physical education instructor.
Nazir, SE volleyball teacher and tournament referee, said the quality of play and skill level of the players, being mainly volleyball students, has improved this year. He also contrasted the volleyball games to many of the football and basketball games, where fights often have to be broken up.
“It’s a really supportive environment,” he said, “and everyone is here to have a good time.”
Last week’s winning teams will compete Nov. 12 to conclude the two-tier tournament.
