Photo by Brittany Pickett

Competition - (left to right) Violet Holley, Nate Travger, John Isham and Andre Dobbs compete for prizes during the Spades Tournament Thursday.

   The Student Activities Board sponsored a Spades tournament Thursday, March 1 in the John F. Gibson University Center Green Room. Almost 50 students attended the event, which lasted from 7 p.m. to approximately 1 a.m. 

   Students started gathering around 6 p.m.; some waited quietly and kept their game faces on, while others laughed and joked waiting for the tournament to begin. 

   Teams of two competed against each other, some very confident of their skill while others were not. 

   “I feel like if [my partner] is sitting across from me and I’m across from him, there ain’t nothing we can’t win,” said one participant when asked if their team was going to win. 

   In the end, it came down to just four people: Eric Bell, Andre’ Dobbs, Ivory Gilmore and Joseph Hill. Dobbs and Bell won the first round against the undefeated Gilmore and Hill team, but the tournaments double-elimination style forced another match. As the exhausted players settled in for the last round, “you could feel the tension in the air.” Hill and Gilmore overtook Bell and Dobbs with a daring double-nil bid to win the tournament. 

   The winners received $25 gift certificates and the runners up each received two movie passes.