It started with 13 teams, but after three nights of dodging, dipping, ducking, diving and more dodging, it ended with only one team left standing. Team Chuck and Duck took home the Intramural Dodgeball Tournament crown by defeating Team Superbad in the championship game.

“It was pretty stiff competition,” sophomore Vaugn Miller, Chuck and Duck member, said. “There were a lot of good teams.”

All 13 dodgeball teams were coed and played two regular season games that were best-of-three matches over the course of Monday and Tuesday night starting at 8 p.m. in Hopper Gym. Teams were then seeded according to the number of wins they earned and placed in a single elimination tournament that was scheduled to be played Wednesday and Thursday night. However, the tournament never made it to Thursday.

“It was a consensus of everyone,” Nicole Darling, assistant director of student activities and intramural director, said. “All the teams were there Wednesday and everyone agreed to just finish playing.”

Team Chuck and Duck earned a bye in the first round of the tournament and then hustled their way to the title after defeating three tough opponents. Miller was extremely pleased with the complete effort put forth by the entire group, top to bottom.

“We played real well as a team,” Miller said. “Our girls made some big plays catching balls and getting people out.”

Darling also had nothing but praise for how well the women who participated in the league and tournament performed.

“It’s a sport in a close area and some guys throw it pretty hard,” Darling said. “But the girls were brave and competed.”

Sophomore Chassidy Weber was one of those brave young ladies as she competed on her team, Helmet Gang. Proving Darling’s observation right, Weber competed so hard that she even continued to compete off the court in the form of trash talking, although in good nature, as she spoke her mind about team Chuck and Duck’s victory.

“They are way too cocky and [did] not deserve to win,” Weber said.

Junior Andy Conyers can also attest to the high level of competition shown by every team in the league, as he was a referee for the intramural event.

“When it gets down to the wire it gets intense,” Conyers said.

Other than the intensity and occasional trash talking, the players showed good sportsmanship, making Conyers’ job easy. He only experienced one play that needed to be reviewed.

“It was more of keeping the peace and making sure things [went] smoothly and the rules were enforced,” Conyers said.

Darling was also very pleased on how the week unfolded, but knowing that dodgeball is one of the most popular and exciting intramural events she wasn’t surprised by the turnout of anxious teams and fans that came to support them in Hopper.

“There were lots of spectators checking things out,” Darling said. “Dodgeball is so entertaining because someone is either getting drilled or making an awesome move to avoid getting hit.”

There will be a late night dodgeball tournament coming up on Saturday, Feb. 9.