The coed, men’s and women’s intramural volleyball tournament began Nov. 1 and finals are set for Nov 5. The excitement and buildup for the tournament were evident even before the tournament was underway.

According to Nicole Darling, assistant director of student activities and intramural director, the tournament is a single elimination tournament with an average of nine or 10 teams competing in the co-ed, men’s and women’s tournaments. Darling also said the teams played four or five games in league play prior to the start of the tournament.

Darling talked about why she thought the intramural volleyball competition gets so competitive. She said a lot of the participants participated in athletics in high school and maybe even competed here at Simpson College too. She also added that having similar groups competing together goes a long way toward creating some friendly rivalries in intramural games.

“It’s kind of a built up competition between the groups of friends,” Darling said. “I think that adds to some of the entertainment competition-wise.”

The competition is pretty even according to the competitors, although everyone is confident their team will be tough to beat. Senior Justin Godwin weighed in on how he thought the tournament would play out.

“I’d say the top two teams are probably our team and Andrew Dau’s team,” Godwin said. “They’re always pretty solid. If there were a favorite it would probably be our team or his. They have a lot of height and they’re all basketball players so they can jump, which definitely makes a difference in something like this.”

Godwin’s team consists of sophomore Kinsey Bak and seniors Whitney Rasmussen, Megan Smith and Kasey Bean.

“We’re pretty decent,” Godwin said. “We play hard. We really have the same group for a lot of co-ed intramurals that we participate in.”

Godwin also added that although his team is pretty solid, they have not yet won a co-ed intramural this fall, but they have placed in the top three several times.

While Godwin was confident heading into the tournament, others had their hopes of an intramural championship dashed away in the first round. Senior Quinn Albrecht painted a pretty bleak, depressing picture of what the first round was like for his team.

“It didn’t go well,” Albrecht said. “We won the first game and then got slaughtered in the second and third. We’re done.”

When Albrecht tried to talk about some of the positives his team had in the first round, he struggled to find a bright spot.

“Nobody got hurt,” Albrecht said. “That’s a pretty big deal for us. No broken legs this week.”

Albrecht did have plenty to say about the performance of his fellow teammates, sophomore Pat Gerhardt and junior Ben Neil.

“Pat couldn’t pass to save his life,” Albrecht said. “Ben Neil is absolutely terrible. He’s going to be really mad that I said that. He’s actually probably one of our better players.”

This year’s championship could be a case of déjà vu: Dau’s co-ed team took the championship last year, with Godwin’s taking home second place, and both are still alive in this year’s tournament.