A sand volleyball courts rests between the walls of Gainey and Lowell residence halls and on the cold fall nights, the women on Spring Arbor’s campus play intramurals there.

It almost seems that men’s intramural sports take precedent over the women’s sports.  Men’s soccer starts at 4:00 p.m. and ends around 6:00 p.m. During the time between the end of the men’s soccer games and the start of the women’s volleyball games at 9:00 p.m. only pick up games occur on the volleyball court.

Another issue that the girls face is that the lights turn off automatically at 11:00 p.m. The games are best two out of three and the first two games are played to 21 points and the last game is played to 15 points. The number of points for some games was shortened just so that the other games can try to fit in before the lights shut off. Even with the shortened games, teams had to play in the dark with only the emergency lights from Lowell illuminating the court.

In the middle of the tournament, the girls of Gainey West, Courtney Flynn, Katie Wheeler, Kate Shetler, Elise Groholski, Rachel Hendershot and myself, had a second game cut from 21 points to 15 because of how late the game was going. It was like we played a first game and a third game. We felt as though we were cheated out of an opportunity to play our best and continue in the winner’s bracket of the tournament. It was unfair to us because the teams that followed us got to play all of their games to the fullest, while we did not. It is unfortunate that they had to play in the dark, but at least they didn’t lose playing time.

Another thing about playing volleyball so late is how cold it gets outside. One night we played during a frost advisory, another night in the pouring rain. It’s not healthy for us to be outside playing sports in cold and sometimes wet weather. I’m sporting a cold because of my dedication to intramurals.

I love the intramural program and I think they do a great job of bringing community to the campus of Spring Arbor, but if they could just change the time that girl’s played beach volleyball the program would be even better.

Sometimes changes have to be made. What those changes will have to be in order to keep the girls from losing toes due to frozen feet, yet being able to include the people that have night classes as well. There are so many variables to consider and hopefully, one day the intramural women’s volleyball season will change for the better.