Staff writer Kameron Southerland played sand volleyball as part of The Daily Tar Heel's Bucket List for UNC students. She documented her experience here:
Intramural sand volleyball is intense. You wouldn’t normally think this to be true, but college changes you. In college, you can find yourself saying things you never thought you would say. Things like “I love dining hall food,” "three seconds left on the crosswalk countdown? I can make that” and “intramural sand volleyball is intense.”
It had started out like any other Saturday night. My newly minted freshman squad ate dinner at Rams Head and then ate three more rounds of food while talking about our classes and our professors and our roommates, you know ~just freshman things~
The guys in the squad had put together an intramural sand volleyball team, and us girls had gotten in the routine of practicing with them to help them work on their skills and make them feel better about themselves.
After dinner, we headed over to Craige (shoutout to the best sand courts in the FYE!) to do just that. We had the ball, we had roomy athletic shorts and we had each other. One thing I did not have, however, was an exact grasp on the extent of my athletic ability.
I’m not really a sporty person, but I do enjoy watching and judging from a distance. Practicing with the guys meant actually participating, though, and there were no small trophies given out at the end. But, you know, this is college! The place where you try new things, release your inhibitions, live your life with arms wide open and quote Natasha Bedingfield at every opportunity you get!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I ended up on the ground.
This is a sport we’re talking about, so in the spirit of the journalistic masterpiece that is ESPN, here’s a little play-by-play of what went down:
- My teammate serves the ball over the net, arguably the best one of the night.
- The opponent hits the ball back across the net, complete with Serena Williams tennis grunt.
- The ball flies toward me faster than Superman in a 5k in the sky.
- I think to myself, “I got it.”
- I jump up to hit it back across the net, surprising myself with my decent vertical.
- “No, wrong move, wrong move.”
- The ball hits the net and ricochets back to smack me right in the face, all while I am still mid-jump.
- I fall. Hard.
This concludes ESPN’s coverage of “A Wipeout to Remember.” Stay tuned for your local news.
I have a personal mantra that practically guides every aspect of my life: Always be the first to laugh, and laugh the loudest. This often leads to strange and concerning looks, but it limits the embarrassment I personally feel, so I roll with it.
Long story short, I laughed, my friends felt comfortable enough to laugh (some louder than others…you know who you are…) and we continued with the game.
Intramural sand volleyball is intense. Friendships are tested, limits are pushed, and wipeouts happen. Now, if I could only get this sand out of my Fro…
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