Each year for Spring Weekend, pits are dug and filled with water for the Longwood tradition of muddy volleyball: Oozeball. The games span over Friday and Saturday. Many organizations around campus put together teams as well as make friend groups. There were two types of groups that were able to play: all girls and co-ed. Some organizations even split up into three categories: co-ed teams, “fun” teams and competitive teams. The fun teams were made up of people who had never really played volleyball before or didn’t have much experience. The competitive teams had people who had played or currently play volleyball, and have a decent amount of experience.
The Longwood Ambassadors set up a table in Dorrill Dining Hall to attract people to the event and encourage them to form these groups and sign up to play Oozeball. The Ambassadors caught freshman Corrina Hill’s attention and sparked her memory and interest.
“They were setting up and digging the mud pit when I came to an accepted students tour last year, and our tour guide was explaining what oozeball was. It just looked like something that I wanted to do,” Hill said. “So I went around and asked people if they would make a team with me. Then I asked my friend Echo Hopkins, and she actually asked if I wanted to be on her team. I brought my two friends from my hall to her team, and there were six of us total, which was the minimum to make a team.” Teams were made up of six to eight people, but only six were allowed in the muddy water at one time. For teams that had over six people, two had to stand on the side of the pit until they were switched into the game with another player. In order to keep on a solid schedule, the teams were only allowed to play for the allotted 10 minutes, or until one team scored 15 points. Each team had the opportunity to show their personality and make their team stand out by choosing unique names and outfits; however, there were slight limitations to what teams could wear. All members had to wear closed-toe shoes and had to keep their clothes on, so that meant that the men could not remove their shirts.
“We all decided on wearing tie-dyed shirts that we already had, but there really was no preparation other than that. Except on Friday we had to make a Walmart run a couple hours before our first game to get cheap water shoes because we were required to wear them in the mud,” Hill explained. “Our team name was ‘Sets on the Beach,’ and one of my teammates, Carrie Mawyer, came up with it. I thought it was clever and funny, and a lot of people thought so too. I saw other teams that made fun names as
well.”
The Oozeball games started at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon with the all-girls teams, and lasted into the evening. The teams that won their first game went on to play a second game about an hour later. If they won the second game, they played early on Saturday morning, starting around 9 a.m. After the all-girls teams finished their games, the co-ed teams began and played all day into the afternoon.
“We won two games on Friday, and then played again at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning. We lost the one on Saturday morning, but that
was kind of good because then we were free to go do everything else on Saturday,” Hill said. “My favorite part of the whole experience was when we all dove into the mud after winning. We just kind of tackled each other after we won our two games. It was really nice to cool off in the mud because it was excruciatingly hot out on Friday.”
