By Haris Sendijarevic, Reporter
Senior Cece Pelak about to spike the volleyball into the opposition’s court – Photo by Cristian Zacharias
Aquinas College Women’s Volleyball hosted University of Michigan-Dearborn on Wednesday, Sept. 2. This marked the fourth time that Aquinas held their annual 90’s Night. Many of the students, adults and other attendees dressed in bright and colorful outfits that were inspired by the era of the 1990’s.
Before the start of the game, there were free grilled hotdogs, cookies and drinks being handed out at the back of Sturrus for students to enjoy by AQ Reslife. Aquinas College Director of Athletic Communications, Joey Sutherlin, also made the opening serve at the 90’s Night themed game. Then the Aquinas College Dance Team came in and started throwing giant beach volleyballs into the crowd of fired-up fans. All while this was happening, nostalgic 90’s songs were being played from “California Love” by 2Pac to “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!” by Vengaboys.
Joey Sutherlin, Aquinas College Director of Athletic Communications, making the opening serve at 90’s Night – Photo by Aquinas Volleyball
Teams and fans were treated to a wonderfully choreographed dance routine by the Dance Team.
“Typically with 90’s Night being in Sept., we only had 4 days to make this routine and clean it [up], so it meant a lot of focus, hard work and strength from the start, but I think it still came out really good and the vibes were up from the crowd; like we fed off of their energy.” Dance team Senior Olivia White said.
The last thing to happen during the action-packed halfway point of the game was that the winners of the ‘best dressed,’ ‘best sign’ and ‘best dressed high school’ were announced. There were three winners for the first two categories and only one high school for the last category. The two former categories had prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place which were a $50, $25 and $10 gift card, respectively. The latter category also had a prize, but it was not disclosed during the game what it was.
The Women’s Volleyball team huddling before the start of the game at 90’s Night – Photo by Cristian Zacharias
For the game, it was a spectacle for the home fans, but not so much for the away fans. The Saints put on an impressive display winning all three sets beating the Wolverines 3-0. The Aquinas fans made the atmosphere amazing with their cheers, roars, barks and taunting the opposing team.
“I think it was an amazing game,” said Freshman Aaron Almy. “There’s a few points where I was biting my nails and maybe my toenails too just because it was close, but I think that the Saints really pulled through and I wish them prosperity for the rest of the season, and I am very proud of everybody.” Even though all of the fans were loud and proud, the Aquinas College Swim and Dive team were the loudest and most present cheering on their fellow sportmates.
“The swim team, we love coming to other teams’ games.” said senior Anthony Dupuis on his team’s electric display on the sidelines. “We love showing out, dressing up– especially for 90’s Night, that is our big one. We actually take off our Wednesday’s team meeting to come to that game. It’s just fun because it creates more of a community between the different teams. All of these different people you see around campus they kind of see us, and we see them, and hopefully they show up to our stuff.”
A packed crowd in Coach Bo Court cheering on the Women’s Volleyball team at 90’s Night – Photo by Aquinas Volleyball
The Saints were the team to get the first point of the game on the board, and won the first set 25-17 leading for essentially the whole time. The second set was much closer with both teams going neck and neck, but the Saints were able to win 25-21. The last period of the game was just a consolation game as the AQWVB had already won two out of the three games that they needed, but they did not hold back and won the last period of the game in the same fashion as the first one with a 25-9.
“90’s Night is always an exciting game, and we look forward to it.” said senior Audrey Gil about the game and the team’s performance. “I am just glad we got to show out and show what we’ve been working on,” “90’s Night has always just brought such an amazing crowd to the gym, and it’s just such a fun and loud environment where everyone can come together,” Senior Jeralyn Hoppes.
The Saints played four games over two days–Friday, Sept. 4 and Saturday, Sept. 5– and won all four of them. Including a ranked win over 15 ranked Mount Vernon Nazarene. Their next home game will take place on Friday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. against Defiance. Students will be looking forward to being able to watch the team play once again not too long from now.
The Saint 