(Left to right) Dalton Durocher, Scott Goyette, Brandon Cave and Rachel Paganelli play spikeball on Friday, Feb. 28.
Teams assembled at 5 p.m., and Eppley Recreation Center’s west gym looked like a scene from middle school recess. Miniature trampolines lined the gym floor, as rubber balls ricoched off them and players tried to keep them from touching the ground.
This is Spikeball: a new sport popping up on college campuses around the country, including Harvard University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and now this university, among others.
Campus Recreation Services hosted a Spikeball tournament Friday as part of the Gym Class Heroes series, a monthly event that features new sports. The tournament attracted about 40 students, many of whom learned the sport’s rules during the hour of free play before the games began.
“It’s just an event for them to get a group of friends together, come out, have a good time, be active and participate in a part of campus recreation,” said Cate Kinlein, intramural sports supervisor and senior journalism and Russian major.
At 6 p.m., the round robin matches began, and the 20 teams were divided into pools of five, playing each team in their pool. The winners advanced to a single-elimination tournament in which team Victorious Secret became this university’s Spikeball champion.
Opposing teams of two surround the trampoline, which is about the size of a hula hoop and sits at ankle height. The game starts with one team serving the ball off the trampoline, and the other team has three hits to return the ball to the trampoline without it touching the ground.
Kinlein described Spikeball as a “combination between four square and volleyball.”
There are no lines or boundaries; players can move anywhere to hit the ball, and teams get a point when their opponents fail to return it to the trampoline. Games are played to 21.
The only equipment needed for Spikeball is a rubber ball and a miniature trampoline, which cost $50 on Spikeball.com for the set.
Intramural sports coordinator Mary Kate Sullivan said the idea for a Spikeball tournament came from a University of Tennessee student who wore a Spikeball hat during a flag football tournament in November.
“I just casually asked him about it, and he got so excited his face lit up like ‘I can’t wait to tell you about this game,’” Sullivan said. “So he got really into it and told me the company Spikeball was willing to loan kits to us for free if I wanted to try it out as an event.”
Matt Jolles, a senior marketing and supply chain management major, said he played Spikeball once before and was excited to see it debut at this university.
“I played it once when I was at the beach; it was kind of like a tailgating kind of game.” Jolles said, “I was interested in seeing how it would work in a real setting, so this was pretty cool. I was excited to give it a try.”
Spikeball also attracts athletes from other sports, said Shannan Cooper, a sophomore communication major. As a member of the ultimate Frisbee club team, she said the team also owns a Spikeball set and often plays together.
“It’s like intense, but it’s really different and just a fun way to hang out with friends and also do something that’s exercise,” Cooper said.
Sullivan said she introduced the new sport to this university to gauge student interest in making Spikeball a regular part of the intramurals schedule.
“Based on the enthusiasm I’m hearing from people, I want to consider offering it either again in the fall or maybe even as one of our summertime intramurals,” Sullivan said.
