In an exciting finale, the Untouchables successfully defended their Intramural Competitive League Volleyball championship by beating the Hooters, 15-8, 16-18, 15-10.

The Untouchables -- Troy Heiser, Craig Boyer, Stuart Revness, Kirsten Pace, Katy Cheveaux and Susan Black -- won the first game "pretty handily," said Heiser, their captain. But in the second game, things didn't go as well.

"In the second match we were making some key mistakes," Heiser said. "They had the momentum going -- they kept on coming back.

"We had them on game point a couple of times, and missing them (the game points)," he continued. "They made a couple good saves off of hits, and capitalized on our stupid mistakes. Finally, we ended up just choking. We were just trying to pummel the ball a lot. That kind of hurt."

In the third game, though, the team came together and cut down on its mistakes. "The hitting came on," Heiser said.

The Hooters -- Gary Dudek, Kyle Merrow, Jim Blew, Doug Hauck, Johannes Schulz, Beth Barkley, Alissa Jaworski, Tracy Jones and Leurinda Pang -- were matched evenly with the Untouchables, according to Dudek, team captain.

"We were having ups and downs all day," he said.

Heiser, however, felt that since the Untouchables have played together longer than the Hooters, they might have had an advantage. However, he gave the emotional edge to the Hooters.

He didn't think his team was as psyched for this year's tournament as last year's. The team was confident, but not cocky as it was last year.

Heiser praised the setting ability of the women on the team and also said that its defense was a factor in the game.

"They were beating us a lot with short dinks, (but) when we switched after the dinks, that's when things really started going in our favor," he said. "We were taking their offensive play, and then we'd pick it up and turn it into our own offensive play."

The Untouchables also tried to frustrate Merrow -- the Hooters' key player, according to Dudek -- and while they didn't completely succeed, it didn't matter.

The Hooters and Untouchables are not strangers to each other -- Heiser, Dudek, Schulz and Merrow have met in fraternity volleyball. Heiser played on the Sigma Chi fraternity team that won last year. Hauck and Schulz currently play for Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, which reached last year's semifinals, and Merrow plays for Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

"I'm looking forward to seeing them in the fraternities," Dudek said.

The fraternities may be the last time they meet, however -- the Hooters will lose a lot of people to graduation this year. The Untouchables will also lose two people to graduation, but Dudek, who plans to return next year, says they should be back for another try.