A colorful contribution to a cure at St. Viator

It was a special night at St. Viator's Cahill Gymnasium.

St. Viator hosted "Volley for the Cure" Monday and even the members of the coaching staffs for the Lions and Vernon Hills girls volleyball teams had their hair sprayed pink.

The enthusiastic crowd watched the Lions improve to 13-2 with a 25-19, 25-12 victory over the Cougars on a night deemed "Dig Pink" for breast cancer awareness.

But the important final score was the numbers of dollars raised - hopefully more than $2,000.

"We did this event last year and raised $1,000," said Lions coach Charlie Curtin. "We were hoping to double that."

Fans had double the fun Monday as they cheered for raffle winners and caught small pink volleyballs thrown to the crowd in pregame warm-ups.

Everyone wore pink T-shirts, including the officials.

"The student section was awesome," said Lions middle hitter Julie Sweeney, who led the way with T-shirt sales, selling some 25. "And everyone really showed they cared and supported us.

"The McEvoys (Martha and Kim are seniors) designed the T-shirts. I basically spent my lunch and after-school time trying to sell them to students and on Facebook. Mrs. Clevenger (mother of Lions senior setter Carlyn) is the most creative mom I have ever met. She thought of all the signs and posters. We owe her one big thanks."

The players were all thankful to have participated in such an event.

"Just coming to play for our team is always motivation enough," said Cougars junior middle hitter Rachel Lira, who collected 3 blocks."But to come out for such a good cause like this, you try to play even harder. This was so exciting."

Vernon Hills coach Abbie Willenborg Gutzmer was back in the gym where she served as the Lions' girls basketball head coach in the mid-2000s.

"Charlie (Curtin) and the St. Viator coaches did a great job organizing and running everything," said Willenborg, the all-time leading rebounder and No. 2 scorer in Marquette women's basketball. "We tried to help as much as we could, donating a few things for the raffle."

Willenborg and Curtin were good friends as classmates at Hersey High School.

The match really hit home for Curtin, whose mother Nancy passed away from breast cancer when Charlie was in eighth grade.

"Almost every family is affected by cancer is one way or another," Charlie said. "It's great to be able to open this up to the community and the girls love to run with it. The crowd was great."

Game 1 was close most of the way.

Clevenger had a run of 5 straight points which put Viator ahead 17-13. Rachel Horvath served the final 3 points, including an ace to end it.

Emily Leazer and Emily Williams each served back-to-back aces in Game 2 when the Lions never seriously threatened after Leazer's kill broke a 5-5 tie.

"We played with more intensity in the first game," said Gutzmer, whose assistant Paul Zickert and Viator assistant Jimmy Neill also sprayed their hair pink. "In Game 2, Viator kind of took the wind out of our sails. They did everything right."

Sophomore Shannon Nugent (1 ace) and senior Alisa Welter each put down 3 kills for the Cougars (7-11).

Leazer led the Lions with 5 kills, followed by Horvath (4) Sweeney (3) and Janelle Stilling (2). Clevenger handed out 13 assists while Leazer (11 digs) and Lauren Bunda (10) led the defense.

"We had a little nerves starting out in Game 1 but we were able to get it going in Game 2," said Curtin, who played all 15 girls on his roster.

Stevenson d. Buffalo Grove: Stevenson improved to 8-5 with a 25-15, 25-15 victory over the host Bison (2-15), who were led on attack by Alanna Zawlocki (5 kills) and Sierra Bugno (3). Teammate Kathy Hampton handed out 9 assists.