Category | Sports

Owls paintball finish second

Published on February 2, 2010 by Derek Wright

In their mid-season SEC tournament at Hot Shots Paintball in McDonough, Ga., the KSU paintball team finished second. The Owls registered two squads in the tournament, each consisting of six players.

Mitchell Van Den Akker, member of the team, has been playing for 13 years and tournament paintball for eight. During these eight years,Van Den Akker has played in nationally, ranked tournaments.

“We mix the experienced players with the less experienced to make two different squads.” Van Den Akker said. “We could have one awesome team and one with the less experienced players, but we want people to have fun and give everyone have a chance to win.”

The weather was less than ideal making the team deal with freezing temperatures, mud, rain and wind during the tournament. With the high of the day peaking at 34 degrees in the morning, the teams had to do everything they could to stay warm.

“The weather definitely has had a toll on us and our gear,” Captain Spencer Lloyd said. “But we are definitely picking up steam here at the end of the tournament.”

The format consisted of five versus five in a single game format. Each team played seven games to have the chance to secure a seed in the single elimination rounds.

The KSU teams started slow, both winning and losing their first two games, but both teams started to get on a roll during the second half of the tournament.

“We had to pick it up and establish our self as an elite team,” Van Der Akker said.

One of the squads won second place and went 7-4, only to suffer a loss to Florida Atlantic University in the final round. The other KSU squad finished with a fifth place win and a record of 5-4.

“We are not playing the best that we could,” Lloyd said. “But we are starting to get the hang of it.”

The team has four more tournaments, with an opportunity to play a fifth if the team decides to do so. After the tournaments they will travel down to Orlando, Fla. to play in the National College Paintball Association national tournament, which will televised on ESPN.

“I am excited about the end of the season, for x-ball and for the national tournament,” Lloyd said.

If interested in joining the team, there will be an informative meeting that will be advertised around campus and on their Web site clubs.kennesaw.edu