MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Merry’s barely managed to squeak past Team IDK winning the five-on-five volleyball tournament hosted at the IronWorks Gym Sunday.
Merry’s won two games to one against Team IDK.
The tournament was a best of three, double elimination with five teams ready to rumble.
The tournament started with a round-robin. The games went to seven points and were used to decide how the teams would be matched for the tournament.
The first match was For Africa versus The Guys. The Guys showed dominance early in the tournament beating For Africa in just two games.
The second round was played by QUA 242 against Team IDK. Team IDK smashed QUA 242, only letting them score three times in the two games.
The Merry’s went up next against The Guys, not even giving them a chance by winning both games.
Struggling to get back into the championship, QUA 242 and For Africa battled out in first losers bracket match.
For Africa came out of the battle victorious, eliminating QUA 242 and sending them home.
The Merry’s cut it close in the fifth round against Team IDK going to a third game.
In the sixth round The Guys buried For Africa and eliminated them from the tournament.
“We don’t get opportunities like this too often,” said Courtney Beall, player from For Africa. “It’s nice to be able to play for recreation and bring together some of the girls from our high school volleyball team.”
The Guys played back-to-back, taking on Team IDK in the fight for third place.
The Guys didn’t stand a chance losing both rounds against Team IDK.
The last two teams to battle it out were Team IDK and the all- Japanese team, the Merry’s.
The teams, nearly equal in skill, fought fiercely to be champs.
The first of the three games was a battle of epic proportions with points being scored back and forth the entire game, but the Merry’s came out on top, winning by only one point 27-26.
Team IDK became fierce during the second game and stomped the Merry’s 25-18.
The second game loss wasn’t enough to keep the Merry’s on the ground.
The Merry’s got back up and dusted off the loss in the final game winning the tournament 15-13.
“It was a close game and we were evenly matched,” said Jordan Kroell, Team IDK player.
Teams for the tournament were mainly compiled of volleyball players who practice at the gym.
IronWorks Gym has open-play volleyball at 5:30 p.m. every Thursday and Sunday.