By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net    

THE Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated secured bragging rights as the old and new champions of the “Get Your Spike On” Volleyball Tournament.

The one-day event was held at the DW Davis Gymnasium on Saturday.

The tournament was hosted by the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated for sorority teams in New Providence.

Jayde Knowles, one of the coordinators, said this year’s event turned out to be the best they’ve enjoyed since they started the volleyball tournament.

“All of the fraternities participated, which was a first for us,” she said. “We were very pleased with the turnout but, next year, we have to find a venue that is much cooler because it was very hot here, in addition to the heat that the players displayed on the court.”

Men’s championship The Alpha Phi Alpha, behind the high leaping performance of Donovan Wilmott, pulled off a two-set sweep in set scores of 25-18 and 25-19 over the Omega Psi Phi in the men’s championship game.

Versatile player/coach Eric ‘Pappy’ Johnson said the Alphas came out and played like the true champions they are. 

    The men's volleyball champions.
  

“When we come to play, we always play with heart and we demonstrated that on the court,” he said. “It was inevitable that we would get the sweep. We just knew we had a better team than they did.”

As the defending champions, Johnson said there was no way that they were going to lose, considering the fact that they added a couple younger players to their roster, which made the difference in the outcome of the game. 

Randy Elliott, player/coach for the Omega Psi Phi, said their goal was to come out and con=mpete and they did it, making it to the championship.

“In the elimination game, we had to come back from seven points down to win,” he said. “So I was extremely happy with the team’s performance today.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t come up with the win in the end.”

Against a team that featured three national team players, Elliott said he felt they gave a good account of themselves with their own national team player Byron Rolle anchoring their attack.

“They got the best of us, but we will come back bigger and stronger and ready to go,” Elliott promised.

Ladies championship

Katrina Johnson emerged as the MVP among a list of players who all helped to power the Delta Sigma Theta in their two-game sweep as they dethroned the champions Zeta Phi Beta in a 25-17 and 25-19 triumph.

“We brought the championship title back home,” said Krystal Brown, the captain for the winners. “They had a very good team. But we were very disappointed when we lost the title to them last year.

“So this was our chance to redeem ourselves. We were a little shaky at the beginning of the tournament, but we had to shake off the rust and we played well to win.”

With players such as Terae Sweeting and Je’Nae Saunders-Greene, Brown indicated that they will be back next year for a repeat and their fourth overall title.

But while they relinquished the title, ZPB’s spokeswoman Wandalee Harris said it in no way diminished the way in which they played.

“We came together and gave it our all,” she said. “I think if our serves were much better, we would have performed much better because it improved at the end.

“But in any sport, you have to play from the beginning. Other than that, we played pretty good.”

Among some of the players from the ZPB team were Michelle Thompson and Charma Smith.