All photos by Dani Licona-Cruz.
To end this year’s fundraising with a bang, the Class of 2025 hosted a Student – Faculty volleyball game on April 27th, 2023.
They sold tickets at the door for $3 and concessions for $1. Among the concessions were chips, water, soda, and select snacks. The game began around 3:30 and ended just before 5pm. It was action packed with a lively audience that was on the edge of their seat the whole time.
The following faculty were participants: Shauna Campbell, Jonathan Courrier, John Frigo, Chris Giordano, Winston Jeune, Jean Jones, Dan Jurkowski, Michel-Le Meranda, Evan Mauser, Allison McDonald, Kurtis Scheer, Joshua Sellers, Richard Voltaire, and Shannon Votaw.
The following students were also participants: Ethan Chen, Kauan Da Silva, Nathan Dean, Victor DeSouza, Timothy Du, Lovely Gerochi, Cheryl Joe, Gil Lawson, Abigail Lee, Taylor Lee, Jason Li, Kevin Lin, Keira Lin, Alex Martins, Eric Mei, Zachariah Mayne Foster, Leticia Noronha, Daniel O’Toole, Ashly Rodriguez, Sorin Taylor, and Devin Wallace.
There were a total of five thrilling sets. The students managed to win four of the sets though it truly could not have been more entertaining and attention grabbing.
The first set started off with a spark that the crowd’s cheers only seemed to fuel further. The students and faculty played rock, paper, scissors to see who would serve first and the students won.
The set began with lots of enticing blocks led by Jeune and Jurkowski on one side and attempts of spikes from the students on the other. However, the students worked hard and managed to surpass the wall that was Jeune and Jurkowski.
This set passed smoothly and though it seemed as if the game could go either way, the students won with a score of 25-19.
The second set went relatively the same as the students won 25-13. The faculty, however, never lost their morale and their teammates continued to cheer them on. Richard said that there was “a lot of resilience” and he was “very proud of everybody.”
There was some push back on certain plays and there was a lot of chaos coming from both sides.
Furtheron, this chaos continued but it was never genuine as all of the participants seemed to collectively agree that the purpose of the game was not to win, but to enjoy themselves and entertain the audience.
Set four truly kept the audience and the players on their toes as the students did not want the game to end and most even confessed to throwing the game just to play another set.
Nevertheless, they became neck and neck with the faculty. They even managed to reach a score of 23-24, on the verge of a deuce, which is when both teams tie at game point and have to win with two points scored in a row.
(Left) Faculty member Evan Mauser blocks a hit from sophomore Abigail Lee. (Right) Faculty members cheering from the sidelines.
In the end though, the faculty won due to the students missing a serve. It was similar to earlier in set three when Pan’s teammates encouraged him to jump serve and it went out of bounds.
This win boosted much of the spirits on the faculty team and they came into the fifth set with a determined mindset to at least reach an end score of 3-2. They fought hard and there were many blocks and spikes that echoed throughout the Finn Gym and had the crowd holding their breath.
With this newfound spirit and cheers from the crowd, the game reached another 24-23. Everyone seemed to be unable to take their eyes off the court as the ball went back and forth. The question of who would win this set was almost impossible to answer.
However, much to the dismay of faculty fans in the crowd, the students pulled through and won the set.
There were heartfelt words of reassurance throughout the faculty team as they accepted their loss but remained joyous as they had had a good time.
Jurkowski, the boys’ and girls’ volleyball coach, had arguably the most experience of the faculty and worked as an unofficial team captain. He stated that the faculty “always kept fighting” and that “at the end of the day it was for a good cause, to raise some money for the sophomores. And it was fun.”
Jeune shared a similar sentiment as he mentioned, “I enjoyed it and I hope we can do it again.”
Vice President of Class of 2025 Huong Ly even shared that she felt the fundraiser was successful and that she thought “the audience loved it because they got to see their favorite teachers playing.”
All in all, the Class of 2025 ended the year with an exhilarating fundraising event that will surely be remembered and hopefully repeated.
