To celebrate Reading Day, Department of Mathematical Sciences faculty, staff and graduate students gathered on the Ewing Green to compete in the elite sport of bocce ball. Though some doubted that a remote college town like Newark could attract much talent to a bocce ball tournament, it was clear early on that competition would be fierce when over two dozen of the best bowlers in Ewing Hall assembled on the turf under threatening skies.

In the first elimination round, Team Precision lived up to its name, scoring a casino against The Scatterers who were absorbed into the growing mass of bystanders. Similarly, Team Dragonball was scorched by the rising tide of L² as they pranced, danced and cartwheeled their way to victory. Dragonball Captain Heryudono comments, "We tried various techniques known in Bocce ball history but didn't work. We just realized that we didn't belong to their function spaces." The Wei's defeated The Perfect Matching, but in their exhausted condition, they were no match for Team Mobius who were fresh having earned a coveted first round bye. Similar first round byes were no help to The Fabulous Bocce Boys or Rⁿ Ball as they were crushed in their first matches in the second-round.

Team Mobius fell to L² in the semi-final round, but the drama continued long after the play was over. L²'s Udeigwe comments, "L² annihilated the Mobius Strip. Topology is irrelevent in this function space." Team Mobius's Stovall was unfazed, "... Team L² ... is graduating this year and we knew that this would be their first and only chance at Bocce Ball victory, whereas we still have a year to come back and claim the title, and we plan to!" The second semi-final match was quite the nail-biter, when Team Precision overcame an early deficit to Team Brownian to claim a position in the coveted Final Round, despite the persistent visual and verbal attempts by Cakoni (from the previously vanquished Scatterers) to distract Team Precision's Pelesko.

The stage was set for an exciting Final Round as L² and Precision squared off. The drama unfolded before the first pallino was tossed. The lay of the fields were contested by both teams. Team Precision has developed considerable expertise on the flatter western field. Team L² had mastered the intricate topography on the eastern field. The Rules Committee resolved the first dispute by having the match played between the two so that no team would have an advantage. Next, Precision's Pelesko objected to the equipment. "[Driscoll's] ball set was not regulation size." After similar trash talk, the play began, only to be frustrated by exceedingly close tosses requiring careful measurements by the judging staff. The pressure of the tournament took its toll as Pelesko complained about getting stiff while measurements were taken. Rossi of L² suggested that it had more to do with his age than the duration of the measurements.

In the end, L² carried the day, thumping Team Precision and earning the coveted first prize, two batches of homemade cookies generously donated by our very own Michele Schwander. Yes, they shared.

The competitors:
B²: Constantin Bacuta and Nakia Rimmer
The Best: Kara Maki and Paula Vasquez
Team Brownian: Y.J. Leung and Wenbo Li
Team Dragonball: Alfa Heryudono and Zach Kurtz
The Fabulous Bocce Boys: Toby Driscoll and Lou Rossi
L²: Lauren Rossi and Lawrence Udeigwe
Team Mobius: Jessica Belden and Jenny Stovall
The Perfect Matching: Kevin Penderghest and Kelly Singer
Team Precision: Derek Moulton and John Pelesko
Rⁿ Ball: Andrew Ball and Regan Beckham
The Scatterers: Fiora Cakoni and Rakesh
The 17-Year Average: Rich Braun and Peter Monk
The Wei's: Ang Wei and Xu Wei

Click here for the official Tournament Tree (pdf format)

Click here to see a photo album of the tournament