Lake Park pitches in, but Neuqua pulls out win
On Thursday night in Roselle, the term "friendly rivalry" took on a whole new meaning.
This was about helping the Federico family.
Christine Federico, mom of Neuqua Valley senior Nikki, was diagnosed earlier this year with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, and is in need of a bone marrow transplant.
Fundraisers already have been held at Neuqua and Sports Performance for Christine Federico. Lake Park did its part Thursday.
At a conference match that Neuqua won 25-18, 25-20, Lake Park hosted a "Teams Helping Teams Night." Lake Park sold more than 600 orange T-shirts that read "We Support You" on the back.
None of the Neuqua players, including Nikki Federico, knew about it until they walked into a Lake Park gym adorned in orange.
"It was awesome of them," Federico said. "I held back as much as I could not to cry. I don't even know any of them."
T-shirts sold at Lake Park in a matter of days, with the plan to send the Federicos a check for more than $3,000.
"My dad brought me this article," Lake Park senior Tori Clark said, "and their story just touched me. I thought that knowing my team and coach, and how caring they are, that they'd want to help her. Everybody at school wanted to support this. In these kinds of situations, you need people to help, even people you don't know so well."
Neuqua's coaching staff knew about the event but kept it under wraps to players.
"One of our parents said it best when he said Lake Park is a class-act school," Neuqua coach Kelly Simon said. "To not have a personal connection and just want to do this out of the goodness of their hearts and to make a difference for someone else, that's what they did here. It's a class act and we're very, very grateful."
On the court Neuqua took control of two competitive sets midway through each. A Sarah Drozdowski kill for Lake Park knotted the first set at 10-10, but kills by Kate Kendall, Emily Tulloch and Beth Blackman touched off an 11-1 Neuqua run capped by 2 Blackman aces.
Eleven ties ensued in the second set, before Neuqua took the lead for good on kills by Federico and Kendall to surge ahead 17-15. Federico had 6 kills and 5 digs and Kendall 5 kills and 5 digs for the Wildcats (22-8, 7-3 Upstate Eight Conference), a win away from besting last year's win total. They wrap up the regular season next Thursday against Benet, whom they could play in sectionals.
"We're getting ready for Benet," Federico said. "We pushed it a little too close tonight."
"We definitely have some kinks to work out," Simon said.
Drozdowski had 7 kills and Chelsea Gieseke 5 for Lake Park (8-18, 5-5).
"I was happy with how the girls played," Lancers coach Kate Clifton said. "I'm so proud of them. I told the girls, 'If you can put the passion that you had for this event on to the court, you're going to play great.' I thought they did."