The varsity volleyball team crushed the Round Rock Dragons 3-0 on Friday, Sept. 28 in a match dedicated to breast cancer survivors. Dubbed “Dig Pink Night,” the game was in support of the Breast Cancer Resource Center, and the gym was decked out with pink balloons, ribbons, and posters all promoting awareness. The crowd got involved by entering raffles in which they could win gift cards, Yeti cups, and more in exchange for supporting the cause.

“Being a female sport, I think it is really good to raise awareness for this,” head coach Tara Nelson said. “A lot of the girls in the program have either had a survivor in their family or know a survivor. Everyone knows somebody that’s had to go through that horrible thing so it’s important  to recognize that for a night.”

The Warriors immediately jumped into the lead at the beginning of the first set, never looking back as a five-serve streak from Abi Rucker ‘20, and three kills by Audrey Quesnel ‘20 set the score at 7-4. The Dragons showed their claws as they fought back, although a heavy reliance their outside hitter helped the Warriors predict where to stand to block incoming spikes. Kenzie Beckham ‘21 surprised the Dragons with moves of her own, setting and dumping in situations when she knew they were ready to defend from kills. The set ended with a score of 25-19 in favor of the Warriors.

“We attacked and blocked really well tonight,” Coach Nelson said. “But even more so, it wasn’t just one person, the attacking was really distributed throughout all of our hitters. I looked at the stats during the second set and there were five girls with four kills so it was really a team effort.”

Round Rock was unwilling to let history repeat itself in the second set, earning the first point and many others with their swift spikes. However, Zoe Menendez ‘20 and Abby Gregorczyk ‘20 extinguished their hopes with a double block, and Quesnel set the court ablaze with kills to the back row. The Dragons continued to fight hard, keeping the score within two points for the first half of the set, but a five-serve streak by Jenny Todd ‘19 secured a win for the Warriors 25-18.

“I think we did really well at the net,” Quesnel said. “We kept our energy up, and our back row and servers were so good too.”

Macy Prenger ‘19 and Rucker put points on the board for the Warriors at the beginning of the third set, but the Dragons were out for vengeance and managed to tie up the score 8-8. Despite this, the Warriors continued to keep their cool, and serves by Maggie Stout ‘19, blocks by Beckham, and kills by Caroline Suter ‘19 kept the score in favor of the Warriors for the remainder of the match. Round Rock tried to close the gap at the very end, but their efforts came too late as a kill by Gregorczyk sealed the Warrior’s victory 25-21.

“We knew that they would be tough,” Beckham said. “In our last game we barely beat them in five [sets], so we came in really mentally prepared and we played really hard.”

The Lady Warriors will take on the Stony Point Tigers on Tuesday, Oct. 2 at Stony Point High School.