The SELU Pride co-ed volleyball intramural team won the Fall 2016 State Intramural Tournament after losing last year’s tournament 14-15.
The Fall State Tournament was held Saturday, Nov. 19 and Sunday, Nov. 20 at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
“An Intramural team is a recreational team put together to compete at academic institution,” said Leonard Dubuisson, senior biology major. “In our case, co-rec volleyball. It is a team of six players including three men and three women.”
While playing on a co-ed team, paticipants admitted that there were some challenges that may not have been present while playing on a unisex team.
“Some of the challenges were playing on a men’s net because it is higher than women’s,” said Shea LaFountain, outside hitter and graduate student earning her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. “Also, having to dig balls from the men because they hit a lot harder.”
Dubuisson, the team captain, said the challenges of being a leader to a co-ed team was making decisions
“Just coordinating who could make what games and if we needed to find a substitute,” said Dubuisson. “It is hard to coordinate six plus college student schedules and communicate the needs of the team as a whole while also being understanding to the individuals.”
Dubuisson said he worked harder to keep his team on one accord and closer than last year.
“Last year, our team kind of fell apart because of our lack of a solid relationship with each other,” said Dubuisson. “I think this year more than last, I tried to make everything a group decision and run everything by the team before any decisions were made. Finding our third girl to bring to state with us when Erin couldn’t come was probably the hardest thing to do. We were very lucky to pick Kelli up on short notice.”
SELU Pride could not practice properly this year due to different schedules of the players.
“This year was a little more difficult for the whole team to even make it to all our games,” said Dubuisson. “For the regular season, we have two girls who are in graduate school, myself who is a non-traditional student and the three other main players, who all play sand volleyball often so they have league games during the week. We did not practice once all year this year that I can think of.”
SELU Pride played multiple teams and shared some memorable moments on the journey leading up to their win.
“I think the best moment leading up to winning was when we all came together as a team,” said LaFountain. “We knew that if we wanted to win, we really had to work together and we did. After winning, it was such a relief to know that all of our hard work playing during the semester paid off and we could go home with the trophy.”