Debater and Chronicle freelancer Indu Pandey ’18 won the Golden Desert Invitational Tournament at the University of Nevada Las Vegas for Lincoln Douglas debate Feb. 4.

Pandey debated for a total of 495 minutes over 11 rounds on whether the plea bargain should be abolished in the U.S. justice system.

“We were all really proud of her and we were sticking with her to the end, prepping with her and just giving her support,” debater Jake Davidson ’19 said. “We were all pulling for her so it was really nice that we came out of there with a win.”

Pandey said she didn’t expect to win the whole tournament but felt excited that her hard work paid off.

“You always go to every tournament wanting to win and putting in enough effort to warrant you winning,” Pandey said. “I worked hard and got a good result, but debate is variable so you never know.”

The debate team has a lot of depth this year, with around eight or nine high level debaters, Pandey said.

“The success doesn’t come from one individual person winning a debate tournament or round,” Pandey said. “It comes for the general high caliber performance of the team.”

The debate team competed at the 32nd annual Stanford tournament Feb. 9-11.

50 debaters will travel to northern California Feb. 16 for the California Invitation and UC Berkeley tournament. Pandey and Jaya Nayar ’20 will compete in the Round Robin tournament.

“I’m so excited to go to Berkeley because it’s one of the only tournaments all year where everyone goes, so it’s a great bonding experience for the team,” debater Lauren Morganbesser ’19 said. “Also, it’s one of the biggest and most competitive tournaments all year so I’m excited to compete.”