It was Sunday night in Jones Residential College, and an eerie stillness filled the building. Except in the basement. 

Cherubs gathered there for a Punch Pong Tournament. Punch Pong requires a Ping-Pong table, Ping-Pong balls and cups full of Hawaiian Punch.  Teams of two throw balls across the Ping-Pong table into the other team’s cups of punch. To win, a team had to sink a ball in all of the opponent’s cups.

Organizers were surprised by the enthusiasm. 

“It got bigger and way more intense than we imagined,” Alex Jones, of Kansas City, Mo., said.

Jones and Juan Forrer, of Tucson, Ariz., were inspired when they spotted the supplies for Punch Ball at a drugstore. After getting permission from the instructors, Jones said he and Forrer pooled their money for supplies and posted flyers and signup sheets in the dorm.

“Organizing the tournament was not that much work,” Forrer said. “It was worth it too, because it gave people a chance to have fun.”

By tournament time that night, 16 teams had signed up. Some cherubs had been signed up without even realizing it.

“My friend Alex Burness signed me up without my prior knowledge,” Josh Kriegel, of Sharon, Mass., said. “Of course once I found out about it, I knew I would have to win.”

With the competitive juices flowing, teams began wearing matching outfits and playing music to distract their opponents.

One female team stood out with their matching makeup, outfits and ‘80s hair styles. Bridget FitzGibbons, of Longmont, Colo., teamed up with her roommate, Emily Hatton, of Chevy Chase, Md., and tried to use their style to intimidate opponents.  

“All we cared about was how we looked,” FitzGibbons said.

Even though her team lost, FitzGibbons said the event was successful in another way. 

“The best part was having everyone together,” FitzGibbons said. “It really was a group bonding experience.”