Four volleyball teams faced off against one another over the past few weeks in the best-of-three series, with each game going to 15. On April 12, only two teams remained in what would turn out to be a very close matchup. Team captain Santiago saw his squad facing off against team captain Miranda and her power squad. They initially were going to just play one best-of-three series, but after that went by quickly, they agreed to play a second best-of-three.
In the first game, Miranda found her team down early; however, they did a great job of communicating with one another to make sure everyone knew what area they needed to cover and how to properly serve to prevent giving the other team extra points. This showed some immediate improvement, as they found a groove and came back to win game one, 15-11. Miranda’s team then cruised into the second game, with Zavier in particular using his strength to deliver fierce serves that would intimidate anyone too much to return. This led to a 15-6 win for Miranda’s team and a quick 2-0 victory in the first best-of-three.
After a short break and discussion, they began their second best-of-three series. Santiago’s team had now gotten the hang of serving, and after fighting back and forth up to a 7-7 tie, Patrick Lund was able to deliver a few nice serves to put them up 9-7. They would see this lead diminished once Zavier got around to being the server again, but in the end Santiago’s team battled out to a 15-13 victory in what was the most exciting match of the evening. Game 4 was a revenge game for Miranda’s team, as they dominated in every way from the start. They finished it out 15-5 to ultimately force a final game, and surprisingly everyone still seemed energized as they were hustling and screaming for joy with every point earned.
The final game was very fun as it stayed close throughout the entire match, no one ever pulled out to more than a 3-point lead. Tied at 9, Miranda’s team battled out a point with a chance to serve and pull away, and after scoring a few points, it looked like it was about over at 12-9. One mistake allowed Santiago’s team to take the serve and they took advantage, scoring 4 straight points and finding a way to get back into it as they would end up winning 15-13 to take the second best-of-three series.
Since both teams came away with a series win, Carla Gamez-Vela, Intramurals director, explained that there will be one more best-of-three series to determine the champion at 5 p.m. April 17. The game is open to the public if anyone would like to watch and cheer on their classmates.
