Volleyball: A blood sport

The Moua family’s interest in recreational volleyball has reached overflow proportions.

Which is why the number of Mouas playing in this year’s 13th annual Spike & Dig volleyball tournament will be double that of last year’s total.

Peter Moua, the captain of the “all-star” Moua team, said he and at least 11 other family members will be among the estimated 1,500 people competing in the 13th annual six-on-six tournament — the largest in the country — which will play out Saturday and Sunday at Spokane Falls Community College.

Moua’s team is composed of himself, two younger brothers, Zong and Yeng, his sister, Lasin, and his cousin, Valley. A second team of Mouas, captained by Peter’s uncle, Passert, is made up primarily of younger cousins, nephews and nieces.

The Mouas entered only one team in last year’s Spike & Dig and experienced limited success, winning just two of the four games they played in the B Division of the co-ed tournament, which requires each team to have at least two females on the court at all times.

“But last year, my brothers couldn’t play,” said the 22-year-old Peter, a lifelong Spokane resident who attended Rogers High School and SFCC. “So, hopefully, we’ll do a lot better this year.”

Most of the older Mouas, according to Peter, have been playing volleyball, recreationally, for the past four or five years. They gather four or five days a week, in the early evening, and play family matches at Gary Middle School.

“Some of the older guys, like our uncles, have always played and they just kind of lured us into it,” Moua said. “This year, we’ve been playing with a lot of the younger kids in the family — nieces and nephews — too, which is why we formed two teams for Spike & Dig this year.”

With none of the Mouas having played competitive volleyball, the Spike & Dig offers an excellent chance for them to test their skills against players of similar abilities. And Peter senses that the team he put together, brothers included, has a chance to do much better in this year’s tournament than they did last summer.

“With my team, we tried to make sort of an all-star team,” said Moua, who works for his father Vaughn’s engineering firm. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to win a few more games and go a little further than we did last year.”

This year’s Spike & Dig, which will accept entries up until Thursday morning, is expected to draw 200 teams that will compete in 10 different divisions, ranging from the Open division, in which the winners will receive $500, to a division composed of junior high students.

“Everyone, except for those in the Open division, are basically playing for T-shirts,” said event organizer Dave Jackson. “But the ones who compete in the Open division are big-time serious.

“We get college players and even some pros who come out and play. It’s about as good of volleyball as I’ve ever seen.”

Jackson said he expects eight or nine teams to compete in the Open division this weekend.

Approximately 55 grass courts will be lined off for the 200 teams that expect to compete in this year’s Spike & Dig. Teams seed themselves and participate in pool play on Saturday. Those who tournament officials feel have seeded themselves too low will be bumped up into a higher division for Sunday’s finals.

Competitors’ ages, according to Jackson, range from 10 to 65.

With both of the Moua family teams entered in the same division of this year’s tournament, there is a chance they could play each other at some point during the weekend.

“I think that would be fun — and challenging,” said Peter.