The navy and gold that usually adorns St. Paul Academy and Summit School’s Briggs Gymnasium was overruled by a color with a cause on Oct. 8. Banners, balloons and ribbons in many shades of pink paraded the walls and bleachers. Fans poured into the gym wearing their pink-hued outfits.

“We had so many more people wearing pink [compared to last year],” varsity head coach Rebecca Zenefski said.

The SPA Volleyball program’s second annual Dig Pink night was met with much enthusiasm and energy from players and supporters alike.

Players sold sparkly headbands during lunch periods the week prior to the gamehe week prior to the game and had a box for donations outside the gym door on game night. The money raised went to the Side-Out Foundation, a foundation started by Virginian volleyball coach Rick Dunetz, which was created to reach out to athletes and cancer patients.

Between games, the team honored members of the audience who had either had cancer or currently battling against it. This included eighth grade volleyball coach Pam Bersie, who is a survivor of breast cancer and is now cancer free.

With an original goal of raising $500, the team well surpassed and accomplished their goal by raising almost triple of their original goal with a total of $1230.08.

“I think Dig was a huge success this year. We raised over $1200. Whereas last year, our first year doing it we raised about $170. It was a nice way to see it financially improve,” varsity volleyball coach Rebecca Zenefski said.

“Dig Pink Night made us more energetic,” senior defensive specialist Alex Miller said.

The team’s great energy lead to their 3-0 victory over Providence Academy.

“It made it all the sweeter, because we had a good three set win against a team we had won the previous year with five sets,” Zenefski said.

“We played really well, I think we played well together as a team,” Miller said. Although the crowd was not very large, “everyone wore pink and was respectful when we needed them to be,” Miller said.

Support of the team was shown when one of the audience members decided to pump the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd by doing the Spartan Beat.

Zenefski said that the program plans to continue Dig Pink night and fundraising next year, when they will hopefully raise even more money and awareness for the cause.