By Michael Burns/reporter
The stakes were high, and the excitement was higher in the Nov. 12 finale of the SE Campus two-day intramural volleyball tournament, but Mix Fruit came out on top.
Six teams who won on day one of the tournament competed on the second day.
The semifinal 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.
The championship game was played to the best of five rounds to 25.
In the first match, Mix Fruit defeated BAMF! in two games, 25-16, 25-22.
It was Team Awesome versus Vteam in the second match. Team Awesome proved to be awesome yet again in the second week with a two-game win, 25-14, 25-13.
Throughout the two-day tournament, the crowd was alert and persistent in cheering for their chosen teams.
The energy was infectious both on court and off, and some onlookers wished they were out on the court themselves.
“The games have been pretty good,” said one fan. “I just wish I was in it.”
In the third match, it was “too much to not enough,” said Dad Gummit teammate Shaun Washam, recuperating after his team’s loss in the locker room.
Mix Fruit beat Dad Gummit, 25-17, 25-13.
“It should be a competitive game,” said Shahzad Nazir, SE volleyball teacher and tournament referee, speaking right before the championship match.
He said most of the students in the tournament are in his class and have trained since August.
“Hopefully, the two teams are at their best, and we have a good, fun match,” he said.
In the championship match, Mix Fruit faced Team Awesome.
It went down to the wire with the two teams intensely playing all five possible games.
It was a trade-off with Mix Fruit winning the first two games, 25-23, 25-17, and Team Awesome winning the next two, 25-11, 25-21.
Mix Fruit made the fifth and final game almost no contest with a 15-6 score.
Quoz Lee, Mix Fruit team captain, said winning the championship was “fun and exciting.”
Last week, he joked that he and his team were going to celebrate with a Heineken, but this week, “It’s going to be a Corona,” he teased again.
The first- and second-place teams were awarded TCC gym bags.
First-place team members also received competitive league volleyballs accompanied with Sharpies to get the autographs of their fellow teammates on the balls.
Intramural volleyball tournaments will be seen next during the spring semester in the form of sand volleyball.
