Participants were covered from head to toe and were beyond recognizable as they competed in all their muddy glory at the annual mud volleyball tournament. Spectators “oohed and awed” as they watched their friends and teammates slip and slide.
To advance throughout the tournament, teams had to alter their game play and come up with strategies to counteract the thickness of the mud.
“The biggest strategy in this game is fearlessness and not being afraid to get muddy,” Cynthia Lally, assistant director of intramural and club sports said. “I know a lot of players who get here and they’re like ‘oh well, you know I’m not going to dive in this, I’m not going to trip in this,’ and so they don’t try as hard.”
Fearlessness was the key factor for the PHB’s, which won the tournament defeating Sets in the Mud. The doctorate of physical therapy students, or the PHB’s, were runners-up last year and were determined to be undefeated this year.
Spectators enjoyed watching all of the spills, faceplants and dirty digs of this year’s games.
Tyler Schmitt, senior, watched the exciting games. “Spills were coming left and right. Face-planting and eating mud quickly became the norm,” Schmitt said. “There were players with mud in their teeth and in places mud should not have been, yet there were smiles and laughs all around.”
Twenty-four teams participated in the double-elimination tournament. Games were played to 15 points in the first round and 10 points in the second round. The tournament was sponsored by Campus Recreation.