Sacramento State’s Debate Team beat 19 teams in the novice division to win first place at a debate tournament held at Pepperdine University on Oct. 23.

The tournament featured debates between 80 teams from 25 different schools including one of Sacramento State’s junior varsity team and another novice team, or first year debaters.

Chantel Crane, a freshman and government major, and Faythe Vollrath, a senior and music major, was the novice team that brought home the win.

According to Kristen Hamilton Tudor, director of debate, Crane and Vollrath had a record of 5-1 in the preliminary debates. The team was leading in elimination rounds and beat a team from Chico State in the quarterfinals. Crane and Vollrath beat Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the semi-finals and another Chico State team in the finals to take first.Crane was eager throughout the debate tournament and Vollrath had confidence in herself and her partner.

“(I was) pumped,” Craine said. “Against these Chico teams especially. They think they know everything and you just hope you can stick it to them. You get a little time to prepare and you just imagine what they are going to say and counter that.”

“I was pretty confident that we’d do well,” Vollrath said.

The novice team and their coach were happy and excited to take the win.

“When they said ‘We vote negative’, my partner and I just sat there, we forgot if we were negative or affirmative. It was very surreal,” Crane said.

“It was very exciting. It wasn’t anything I ever expected. It was great for the Sac State team because we’ve already had a third place, second place, and a first place win. It’s exciting that our team is doing this well as a whole,” Vollrath said. “Our win really shows how much our coach puts time and effort into us.”

“I’m very proud of the hard work of the entire team. It feels good to win first place,” Tudor said.

The team is scheduled to travel to CSU Northridge to compete in less than two weeks. In the Spring the team is set to compete at UC Berkeley, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Francisco City College, and the national championship in Dallas.