One of the most infamous grudge matches in MSMS sports history continued this week with the annual Students vs. Faculty basketball game, which the staff won with a hard fought 45-35 result. New to the proceedings this year was a Students vs. Faculty volleyball match, with three extremely close sets all also won by the staff.

The basketball game was played in MUW’s Pohl Gym on Wednesday, Dec. 11. The student team, made up of members of the new Basketball Club, was captained by two juniors, club president Joshua Murphy and Luke Baumann, while the staff team was captained by RA Jon Beadlescomb. The teams played a self-officiated game with eight-minute quarters. The staff team was made up almost entirely of residential staff, with the only stat recorded by a faculty member being an assist to Student Affairs director Leann Alexander by biology teacher Dr. Bill Odom.

The Student vs. Faculty basketball game was created in 2018 by Frazer Hall Director Hansel Jackson. For the past two school years, the game has been held in the spring, but the most recent third match was scheduled for December, as Jackson and the Student Government Association plan on holding it twice a year now. Student teams lost both previous games and were itching for a win. Jackson understood their frustration about losing, but chose to focus on the event’s positives.

“I enjoyed it. I didn’t play, so I kind of went into coach mode for the staff,” Jackson said. ” But it was good as long as the students had fun, and whatever complaints that they have, I’ll try and address them for the next game.”

A quiet crowd of around 20 students watched as the staff came out to a 10-2 lead early on, which they didn’t relinquish for the duration of the game. The student team attempted to mount a comeback, bringing the score within six points with three minutes to go. However, another three unanswered FGs by the staff put the game fully out of reach. By then, most of the student crowd had left for the school’s newest addition to the proceedings, the Student vs. Faculty volleyball match.

The volleyball match, officiated by RA Sandy Bonucchi seemed to draw more excitement from students, as each set was close and contained more memorable moments: harsh spikes were met by ball-kicking; a series of four consecutive serves by Executive Director Dr. Germain McConnell not returned by the student team; and a series of events in which Odom was first surprised at a serve by student body president Alisha Burch making it over the net, loudly exclaiming “That ain’t gonna happen again!”, and then being yet again caught off-guard by the serve. Thomas Richardson and Ian Barclay were also notable members of the faculty and staff team, as they are both former students of MSMS who played sports while attending.

The student team was composed of the MSMS Volleyball Club, which was started last year by then-junior Clara Grady, who is now the Student Activities Coordinator in the SGA and helps organizes the Student vs. Faculty game. Grady said that the club has grown significantly since it began, now having over 20 members, but that it is unlikely that they would be able to form a varsity team due to its makeup being mostly male and most other teams being female. However, this did not keep them from preparing seriously for the Student vs. Faculty game.

“I’m proud of them,” said Grady. “A lot of them have committed their time to volleyball.”

In fact, the preparations by the Volleyball Club intimidated McConnell, who usually plays for the faculty basketball team, but didn’t this year due to an injury sustained while playing basketball outside of the school.

“I enjoyed the volleyball even though I haven’t played in about 11 years,” McConnell said.”You know, I expected the students to kill us in volleyball, but we pulled it out three sets in a row, so I’m proud of the staff.”

Expectations for the next set of matches between the students and staff of MSMS in the spring run high, as basketball and volleyball are both set to return with even more faculty participants. The students, on the other hand, will look to end their losing streak once and for all.

“All of them have grown this semester,” Grady said of the Volleyball Club.” “I hope to continue that next semester, and win the student-faculty game.”