Volleyball: Hornets Volley for a Cure

Lakeland played its sister school, host Walter Panas on October 12, in the Volley For The Cure, an event where all the proceeds went to the Side-Out Foundation for Breast Cancer Research. Team members wore pink shirts and pink balloons decorated the gymnasium.

Lakeland coach Steve Fallo said he was honored to have his squad compete in the event.

"Anytime you do something for a cause like this, it's special and you want to be a part of it," Fallo said. "We were more than happy to be here and participate with Panas."

For him, the cause of the event had personal connections.

"My mom had breast cancer when I was 10 years old," Fallo said. "It was a long time ago, about 42 years ago. She survived it, but it was something that we dealt with, especially when we were younger."

For Lakeland senior co-captain Sara Oakes, the event is also a personal one as she has lost a close family friend to breast cancer.

"I think it is a really important because we are all young ladies who have a chance of getting it," Oakes said. "A lot of us have relatives or mothers, or friends' mothers who have had this disease. It's really just a good cause for all of us to come together and support it."

The Volley For The Cure is part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month across the country, which has included National Football League players, coaches and other team personnel wearing pink to help promote awareness.

"We all need to be aware of this cause," Oakes said. "It really affects a lot of people. The more people know about it, the more money goes into research. It's really going to help out a lot."

As for the match, after being dominated in the first two games 25-10 and 25-13, Lakeland played well in the third game, at one point even led 17-11 before the hosts came back and won 25-21. Panas beat Lakeland 3-0 games. 

"We were getting our blocks up," Oakes said. "They had to hit over us, we were digging a lot more, we were more in position, we were just playing more together as a team. We had our energy up."

That energy has been up throughout the season as Lakeland has won eight of its first 13 matches after winning just three games a year ago.

"We are just playing a lot more better as a team," Oakes said. "We have a lot more experience this year. We have seniors on the floor as captains pushing everybody. Coach has been doing a real good job with us all year."

Fallo said his squad has earned a winning record so far because it has beaten the teams it was supposed to beat.

"We have played some good matches," Fallo said. "We have beaten the teams that are equal with us and competitive with. We haven't beaten any of the bigger teams, the Panas', the Haldane's, the Hen Hud's. We are not at that level yet. We just haven't attained that. They are good volleyball teams."