Photo by Sam Thiel Jeff Pooler (right) connects on a swing during the Sounds of Summer YMCA sand volleyball tournament Saturday at SMSU.

MARSHALL – With music blaring through the loudspeakers and the weather and sand in perfect condition, Sounds of Summer was in full effect Saturday on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University.

Teams such as Thee VP, One Hit Wonders, We Dig It, Hitching Post, Bananas, School of Rock and more all converged to the sandy courts at SMSU to participate in the Sounds of Summer sand volleyball tournament on Saturday.

The tournament, which was put on through the Marshall YMCA, was the first year of the event. Tournament site director Amanda Schwartz said it was a great opportunity for the YMCA to put on the event and they were pleased with the outcome.

“I felt like we needed to do something and Sounds of Summer was the perfect weekend to do it,” Schwartz said. “It’s already a reason to bring everyone together so we put out some feelers and it sounded like everybody would really enjoy it, so we’re really happy with the turnout.”

A total of 12 teams participated in the tournament. Teams were broken up into three pools, with each team playing three games in pool play. The top six teams then advanced to bracket play, with each game being played in a best of three set format.

Team Sutton took home first place, while We Dig It took second and Hitching Post took third. Prizes included gift cards to The Gambler and Marshall Chamber Bucks.

Schwartz said they were impressed with the turnout for the inaugural tournament and their goal was just to do something for people to have fun.

“We were really impressed with the turnout, especially for the first year. We didn’t give people a lot of warning to sign up, but we had 12 teams and it was the perfect amount and it was a good first year,” Schwartz said. “We just wanted to put something on for everyone to do and have fun.”

Schwartz added they’re already looking into doing the event next year.

“That’s the plan,” Schwartz said. “We had a lot of really good feedback, so we’ll definitely do it again, change some things and make it even better next year.”

Schwartz said they’re also always open to suggestions for future events.

“We’re not closing the door on anything; we’ve had people throw out suggestions of other things they want to do, but we don’t necessarily have to do things during Sounds of Summer either,” Schwartz said. “We’re always open to suggestions and willing to do anything that the community wants to get involved in.”

Schwartz said going into next year, their biggest takeaway will be to look at the pros and cons of the event and look to improve on things.

“I think just taking the pros and cons of how the event went, make some positive changes and keeping things the same that went well. Just building off of this year and hopefully have a better event next year,” Schwartz said. “Overall I’m really pleased with how it worked and how well it went. We had a lot of positive feedback from the majority of the teams, so to me it’s a success.”