SPORTS STORIES:
SPORTS INFORMATION—2008
Case volleyball team raises $4,500+ for the cure...
CLEVELAND, OH (October 28, 2008) - The Case Western Reserve University volleyball team is currently third in the nation [NCAA Division III] in digs, averaging 22.2 per game. The Spartans upped the ante last Thursday averaging 30 digs a game in a 3-0 win over Ursuline College on their first annual “Dig for the Cure” night.
Click here to see a picture release from that evening.
“Our players were really focused on their defensive effort,” Head Coach Karen Farrell said. “We are strong defensively anyway, but the added incentive knowing that every time a player dove for a ball and saved a point it was going to help out this great cause just inspired us a little more.”
Dig statistics were not the most important number on the night and neither was the fact Case Western Reserve improved its record to 16-11. At the end of the match, the Spartans had raised over $4,500 dollars for breast cancer research… and counting.
“This was our first try at this and being so it is recommended you set a goal of around $2,000 because that is the average of what teams have been able to raise initially,” Farrell explained. “But our players and the campus community really embraced it, allowing us to exceed our goal.”
The Spartans not only dawned pink warm-up tops, but wore pink jerseys as well. Team members also sold the warm-up tops, pink bracelets and solicited general donations and pledges per dig leading up to the night. The per-dig gifts ranged anywhere from 10 cents to four dollars. University Circle Quiznos underwrote the bracelets and Kohlmyer Sporting Goods discounted the t-shirt costs.
“It’s [an event like this] not just to raise money, but also to raise awareness of the cause,” Farrell said. “Having something like a color [pink] that people can identify [breast cancer] with be overwhelmingly present that evening, was equally important as the raised funds.”
“We didn’t host the event for any specific person that was associated with our program. Overall, it’s just a cause that touches everybody,” Farrell continued.
The capacity crowd on hand was pretty in pink and the color carried as far off as Macomb, Michigan via freshman outside hitter Eleanor Wong’s high school [Stevenson]. The Titans wore the Spartans’ Dig for the Cure” shirts and bracelets in a match that same night and brought in almost five-hundred dollars.
“People found different ways to get involved and help us,” Farrell explained. “It was an incredible effort to raise $4,500, and it was our players and the campus community that made it happen.”
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