Gallaudet women’s volleyball team is signing, quietly winning and rolling into the NCAA Tournament

AP Sports Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sometimes opponents think players on Gallaudet’s women’s volleyball team are trying to distract them by using their hands and arms to talk in American Sign Language. They’re happy to let them think that because the team made up almost entirely of deaf and hard of hearing athletes is 30-4 this season. Gallaudet is back in the NCAA Division III Tournament, succeeding in silence in a sport usually predicated on verbal communication. A victory would be the program’s first in the tournament since 2006.