Authorized newspaper of Fort Lewis, Washington
SJA’s Josh Quinton uses his leaping ability to hold off any 308th BSB counter attack in the intramural championship.
After losing its first match of the double-elimination tournament to 308th Brigade Support Battalion, Staff Judge Advocate came back in the second match and laid down the law by sweeping the 308th BSB 2-0, June 4, in the intramural volleyball finals at Wilson Sports and Fitness Center.
The 308th BSB had the chips stacked against them from the beginning of the tournament as the team forfeited the opening round game against SJA because of a lack of participants.
SJA won the opening game in the best-of-three series and looked destined to clean sweep the competition. The 308th came back to take two in a row.
SJA ran the table and finished the match strong by taking two games and the title.
“My team came back, it was a big team effort,” SJA team captain Aaron Thomas said. “They all worked together and talked together.”
From the coin toss, there was a friendly exchange of words between the Staff Judge Advocate and the 308th as both teams had every intention of taking the title.
“We have good players, the other team has good players,” 308th BSB’s Jonathan Teeter said.
“We just needed to get it together,” he said.
The teams played almost identically in the beginning of the first game; no team was clearly ahead.
At 6-up, SJA found its rhythm and moved to a five-point cushion and 308th BSB called for a timeout to regroup. It must have worked because SJA had to take a timeout of its own as 308th got within striking distance and eventually tied it up and took its first lead of the game at 19-18, SJA became hungry for blood as precision spikes characterized its sweeping finish to grab the first game 25-21.
SJA was then in position to take the crown in the best-of-three series.
The second game was just as tight, but 308th set the tempo to keep a comfortable two to three point gap through the halfway point before SJA called time at 19-14.
The 308th BSB didn’t back down winning 25-19 and gained momentum heading into the 15-point deciding game to force the winner-take-all final game.
The game was even at seven, but 308th BSB made clear its intent to force a second and final match against SJA and only allowed a point before taking the game 15-8.
The opening plays of the grudge match were intense as the ball was spiked on the lip of the net, twice by SJA and once by 308th BSB, before SJA went up 6-3.
SJA never looked back as they drubbed 308th BSB with powerful spikes to dominate the first match 25-9 and began closing in on the title.
SJA’s Josh Quinton emerged as the dominant force of the final match as he utilized his height to smash several devastating spikes on the opposition including a peculiar hit that caused the ball to roll more than six feet along the lip.
“We exploited the opposite side,” said Quinton. “We gave them something they weren’t looking for.”
The 308th BSB didn’t back down, but were always behind as it couldn’t muster enough to catch SJA 25-23.
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