The New Providence High School volleyball tournament returned this year after being cancelled for the past two years due to COVID-19.

The tournament took place on March 9th from six to nine p.m. in the middle and high school gyms. Teams of six to ten people paid an entrance fee of $50 to raise money for the class of 2025. 

Class advisors Mrs. Halpern and Gumerlock helped the freshmen class raise a total of $750.

“Being the first year after two years of COVID-19, me and Mrs. Gumerlock thought it was very successful,” Mrs. Halpern said.

The school-wide volleyball tournament has been a popular fundraiser for a total of eight years and “pretty much runs seamlessly at this point.” 

Students proved how much they enjoy the tournament by signing up in droves.  Not only did the tournament surpass its original goal of ten teams by attracting a total of sixteen, it was only three away from reaching a previous record of eighteen teams.

“This tournament has always been really successful and has really always had a lot of teams participate,” Mrs. Halpern said.

The tournament kicked off with a round robin bracket with a total of sixteen teams. There were four brackets with four teams in each. Each team played everyone twice. Out of the four groups, the top two teams advanced to a playoff round. The playoff games were single elimination and resulted in one winner. The winner of the 2022 school wide volleyball tournament was a team called “First Round Exit”. 

Although there is a competitive aspect to the tournament, one of its main goals this year was to reconnect students after two years of being remote. 

“The goal is to have a great night and get everybody back here participating,” Mrs. Halpern stated.

The tournament will be back next year.