The Ball Busters, one of College Station’s coed competitive adult rec volleyball teams, fell to Innovative on Tuesday, Oct. 10, at the Lincoln Recreation Center.
Starting strong, the three-man, three-woman team won its first set, 25-19. It took multiple long rallies to win. The group has played together since the summer after meeting during open gym play, and while some members are Texas A&M students, others are community residents. Players said they liked both the age mix and the “chill” environment compared to A&M rec sports.
As the second set began, Innovative stepped up its game with an ace to lead with a score of 12-8. Midway through Set 2, Ball Busters subbed in one of its main hitters, forensic investigative science senior Emily Linhart, who tied the game at 14 with a strong spike across the net. Ball Busters then took a 15-14 lead as Innovative missed blocking a hit.
Ball Busters’ lead was short-lived, as Innovative had multiple serves that pushed it to gain the upper hand at 17-16. The second set continued with multiple back-and-forth leads, but in the end, Ball Busters lost the set with a score of 25-21.
With 13 minutes left to play, Ball Busters and Innovative entered into a tiebreaking last set. Once again, the score was neck and neck with both teams showing hustle and making strong saves. It didn’t come down to who would win the set, but instead, who would win against the time. As the clock ran out, Ball Busters ended with a tough 20-18 loss.
“Even if we lose this game, we are still in first place,” College Station resident Liddie Smith said. “We just need to focus on having fun as the playoffs approach.”
Many of the Ball Busters’ players said they had mixed feelings over the game.
“I’m very upset and unhappy with our performance for today,” Linhart, one of the youngest players on the team, said. “It still doesn’t matter because we were undefeated, and now we only have one loss compared to 20 wins.”
Ball Busters now has a record of 20-1 as it approaches the playoffs on Oct. 24 at the Lincoln Rec Center. The City of College Station has five teams in the competitive coed rec volleyball league that play every Tuesday and Thursday night at the Lincoln Rec Center. All teams consist of three men and three women on the court from ages 18 to 99, according to rectrac.cstx.gov.
Sara Lyon is a agricultrual leadership and development junior and contributed this from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.