The 29th annual Staters for State volleyball fundraiser is at 10:30 a.m. April 22, behind the Meadows apartments.

Registration for the game cost $20, which got students a T-shirt, lunch and two guaranteed games in the tournament.

It is the group’s only fundraising event during the school year, and though the Wellness Center does intramural volleyball as well, Staters for State adviser Kayla Bessler thinks their spin on the classic summertime game will be enough to bring students out of their dorms and onto the field.

“We’re the only ones on campus that do mud volleyball,” Bessler said. “So, it’s kind of a different experience and you get to know students and network. It’s a fun day.” 

So far 14 teams, each with between six and eight people, have signed up for the year’s tournament.

“It looks like a fairly promising turnout this year, so we’re really excited,” said Sarah Lehmann, Staters for State member and junior biology pre-medicine major. 

After picking out all the rocks from the muddy fields behind the Meadows apartments, the area is hosed down with water.

“It’s really fun,” junior advertising major Molly Gray said. “We get a lot of teams that come out and you play volleyball in a big mud pit.”

Staters for State started mud volleyball in 1988, after getting the idea from another school at a conference they attended. 

Most of the cost for signing up goes toward putting on the event.