DeKALB – “Looks like it’s third place again, ladies!” one fan yelled to the freshly-defeated Alpha Sigma Alpha tuggers.

It was one of the many chants and jeers thrown out by the crowd gathered on Wednesday at 912 Edgebrook Drive during the opening match of the 2023 Panhellenic Council Women’s Tugs tournament.

Alpha Phi and Alpha Sigma Alpha battled for tug-of-war supremacy under the lights with a championship berth on the line.

“It went really well,” said Payton Rogers, the Panhellenic Council’s vice president of community service. “We don’t have a lot of teams, so having that involvement and being super excited about it is fun to see and super fun to watch happen, too.”

In a match nearly identical to last year’s meeting between the two sororities, Alpha Phi emerged victorious after three rounds of tug-of-war.

The efforts of Alpha Phi’s first-rope tuggers were vital to the sorority’s win. The unit bested its ASA counterpart twice on its way to winning the match’s first and final rounds.

Wednesday’s first round saw Alpha Phi achieve initial superiority following a leverage-shifting tug near the round’s five-minute mark. By the round’s end, the rope’s knot had made it to Alpha Phi’s third trench.

The second-rope tuggers entered the fray with Alpha Phi as the match’s early frontrunner. 

Both sides engaged in a close battle before ASA gained noticeable leverage on the knot in the frame’s late stages. Alpha Sigma Alpha outlasted Alpha Phi after 15 minutes to even the match and force the third round to decide the victor.

The first-rope tuggers returned to the trenches facing a situation where the winner would go big, and the loser would go home.

Like the round before, both tugging teams fought fiercely for an edge. Alpha Phi gained the upper hand near the round’s halfway point and never turned back. The APhi first-rope defended its leverage for the remainder of the contest.

TUGGING TITLE REMATCH

With the win, Alpha Phi earned the right to fight defending champion Sigma Sigma Sigma, better known as Tri Sigma, in Saturday’s championship match.

The two sororities will face off for the second year in a row in a repeat of last year’s title bout. 

Tickets for Saturday’s championship match are $20 and can be purchased on EventBrite. Competition will commence at 2 p.m. Saturday at 912 Edgebrook Drive.