Approximately 140 SLU students took part in the Fraternity and Sorority Life’s (FSL) dodgeball tournament on April 2. Phi Mu and Alpha Delta Gamma (ADG) won the tournament, defeating Delta Gamma (DG) and Beta Theta Pi (Beta) 2-1 in a hard-fought nail-biter championship series.
ADG President, Griffin Burk, scored the final out of the tournament. His teammate, Michael Brenner spoke about what playing alongside Burk is like.
“Burk is an amazing teammate. That’s our president so he’s always there cheering us on. It’s great,” Brenner said postgame.
Burk spoke highly of both his ADG and Phi Mu teammates.
“It’s teamwork, it’s what it’s all about,” Burk said. “We were coordinated, collaborative and it showed”.
Phi Mu/ADG’s toughest competition came in the final round, against DG/Beta, who were led by dynamic duo Sam Van Cleve and Cooper Bergstrom. Van Cleve and Bergstrom combined for over 80 outs across the span of the tournament, with more than 20 catches between them.
“[Bergstrom] is the first kid I met at SLU 101, and ever since then, we’ve had a special bond together,” Van Cleve said. “We’ve gotten used to each other, and we were able to carry that over onto the court today.”
“You can’t say we didn’t go out there and fight. This meant a lot to us. Those DG girls put it all out on the floor,” Bergstrom said after the final.
Other tournament standouts include Leonardo Cecere and Aleigha Schnable.
Cecere was a defensive anchor for Kappa Delta (KD), Delta Phi Omega (DPO) and Phi Kappa Tau (Phi Tau). The team forced multiple overtimes in their first-round series against DG/Beta. Cecere led the stand in Game 3 of the series that forced a sudden-death second overtime. DG/Beta would win off a Van Cleve out.
Schnable was the standout star for Alpha Delta Pi (ADPi) and Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE), with her elusiveness frustrating Phi Mu/ADG’s firing squad offense in the semi-finals. Schnable was a woman alone against the volley but managed to survive for almost a minute, eight seconds short of forcing overtime.
Phi Mu/ADG took first place, DG/Beta second and third place was given to ADPi/PIKE for losing to the eventual champions in the semifinals.