DTD, Juggernauts win intramural volleyball tourney

Jamie Kapalko

The path to victory in the men’s bracket of the Intramural Sand Volleyball Tournament was not a smooth one for senior Kevin McMullen and his Delta Tau Delta team. Dismal weather conditions postponed the tournament from Saturday to Sunday, and the team was forced to win two straight games in the championship match after a first-game loss, but they pulled through to come out on top. The freshman Brian Carpenter’s Juggernauts captured the co-ed division crown.

McMullen’s team won four matches on Sunday to take home the title, but their opponents in the finals, the Sand Diggers, did not make it easy. The first game of the match was a close one, with the Sand Diggers squeaking by 27-25.

“We just realized that we weren’t serving very well, and we just focused more on trying to erase the mental errors and giving the other team points,” McMullen said, describing the fine-tuning the team needed to work on for game two.

Not discouraged by their defeat, DTD battled back in the second game of the match and brought the Sand Diggers’ momentum to a grinding halt with a 25-19 win. Their adjustments were certainly a success, as they had no faults in the entire second game. With the score tied at 1-1, the teams played final game to 15 to determine which team would call itself the Intramural Champion. DTD prevailed, 15-10, to claim victory. McMullen recognized sophomores Adam Kucharski and Ray Vlacancich as the team’s strongest assets.

Carpenter and the Juggernauts, an all-freshmen team, did not know what to expect when they stepped onto the court for the first time.

“We were surprised we did that well because it was our first time out there,” Carpenter said. The team was obviously not intimidated by the competition, only needing two sets in the co-ed championship match to triumph over the Runamucks. They won the first game by a tight two-point margin, 26-24, but claimed a decisive 25-18 victory in the second game of the match.

Although only two teams came away with titles, 16 other teams served, bumped and spiked on Sunday. Ten teams participated in the men’s division, and eight played in the co-ed division. Despite the postponement due to rain, the tournament was a success.