Mud, mud I love mud

After hurricane Isidore rained out the block party on homecoming weekend, the IGC found themselves with extra money to spend. Looking for a way to involve the school's Greek system and the community; the end result was a day of mud volleyball on the Res Quad.

"We wanted to have an event for the whole community," senior Adam Biacchi said.

Organized by senior Adam Biacchi, a brother of Zeta Beta Tau, and senior Lauren Hanlon of Alpha Phi and several other members of the IGC board, the mud volleyball tournament was a success. With 16 teams including eight non-Greek teams, a large crowd gathered on the quad to cheer on their fellow Jumbos in a quest for bragging rights.

The first round match-ups in the tournament pitted great rivalries against one another including the members of Alpha Phi facing off against Chi Omega in a match-up of not only sisterhoods but true siblings as well. Senior Jennie Granato of Alpha Phi led her teammates against her younger sister sophomore Alexandra Granato and her fellow Chi Omega sisters in the first round, a match that ended in a 9-1 Alpha Phi smashing of Chi Omega.

"It was fun to play my sister. In the end it was an unfair match-up though. Apparently the Alpha Phi girls are just more experienced when it comes to activities in the mud," the younger Granato said.

"Well we like to get down and dirty," Jennie responded to her sister's comments.

Along with the playful rivalry among sisters, the first round also pitted members of Delta Upsilon (DU) _ mostly composed of members of the football team _ against the Men's Soccer Team in the quest for bragging rights as the fall's most athletic team. In the end, the brothers of DU snuck by the soccer team with a 9-8 victory.

"We knocked the men's soccer team out in the first round. That was our only competition," sophomore Caleb Hudak said. "We won because we're just far superior athletes. They're a bunch of pretty boys. I can't believe they thought they could play with us."

"Besides we had the weak link in Daniel 'disco' Coleman," Football player Mike Blea added.

In fact the entire soccer team blamed their loss to DU on the inability of the only non-athlete on their team, junior Dan Coleman. They do not believe that the reason for their loss was due to the skills of the football team and still believe they hold their positions as the supreme male athletes on campus.

Coleman acknowledged that he is simply a soccer-wannabe and also admitted to being the reason for the soccer team's loss.

"All my life I wanted to be a soccer player, that's why I decided to live with them. I'll never be as good an athlete as them or anyone else though and I'm ashamed at being the reason for the loss," Coleman said.

After beating the men's soccer team, DU had smooth sailing throughout the rest of the tournament as they sailed by the crew team and the program board team. Perhaps it was their large size or perhaps they were truly the superior athletes in the competition. Senior Jamie Konn believed that his coaching ability was the reason for his brother's success in the tournament.

"I didn't block or spike any balls today but without my superior coaching and leadership team DU would be lost," Konn said.

His teammates housed a different view of his coaching ability though.

"We'd do better if Jaime left us alone," Hudak said.

"We listen to everything he says and throw it out the window. So should everyone else on this campus," junior Adam Kacamburas said.

Instead of Konn, DU pointed to the late addition of junior Ryan Papi as the reason for their success. Joining the tournament after the first round, Papi provided as strong force behind the net that allowed the team to cruise by their latter opponents

"The late addittion of Ryan Papi was the key to our team's success. His serving prowess is unstoppable," Hudak said.

It was team DU in the end that was able to pull out the win in the tournament facing Zeta Psi in the final round. With a 15-11 victory, the brothers pulled through once again closing out the tournament with the champion's trophy and bragging rights for the year.

"We went out there and we showed the pride of DU. It was a good bonding experience for the brothers," sophomore Phil Oates said.

It was not only the brothers who enjoyed their day in the mud.

"This is the most fun thing I've done at Tufts so far," freshmen Jill Harrison of the Programming Board team said.