On October 20, the Los Altos girls volleyball team beat Palo Alto in the annual Dig Pink game with a final score of 3-1.  The Dig Pink game is a yearly volleyball game between Los Altos and Palo Alto that raises money for the Side Out Foundation.

The term “side out” in volleyball means regain possession of the ball. This makes the name “Side Out Foundation” very appropriate as the group helps people with breast cancer regain control of their respective lives. The mission of the Side Out Foundation is to team with the volleyball community to inspire science and hope in the match against breast cancer. Money is raised at the Dig Pink event by people making flat-fee donations or pledging a certain amount of money for every “dig” that occurs during the game. All of the proceeds from the Dig Pink events go directly to the funding and support of breast cancer research.

“I love the dig pink game every year,” senior co-captain Megan Wilhelm said.  “It’s really fun to see all the pink the gym and how easy it is to raise money for a breast cancer awareness. It’s one of my favorite games every year.”

Megan, who was voted player of the game, was a major reason why Los Altos was able to come away with a victory on the night. The first two sets saw Palo Alto jump out to early 7-1 and 9-4 leads. In the first set, Los Altos was able to recover with stellar serving and win 25-19. However, it was a different story in the second set as Palo Alto was able to hold onto their early lead and won 25-20. Los Altos came out firing in the third set and finished it off with an ace from senior co-captain Louisa Kishton and a score of 25-22. The fourth set was a hard fought battle but Los Altos was just able to edge it with a score of 25-23 which ultimately gave Los Altos the win.

Seeing as the main focus of the night was raising money for charity with the amount of digs, here are the Los Altos dig leaders that raised the most money: Megan Wilhelm had 16 digs, Louisa Kishton, senior Sarah Callan, and junior Avery Deaton all had 6 digs and senior co-captain Alexis Malgesini had 5 digs.  Overall, Los Altos and Palo Alto totalled 98 digs on the night.

Each year, Dig Pink events are held all around the country by tens of thousands of volleyball players, coaches and families across the country. These events raise around 1.3 million dollars every year to support breast cancer.  While the game on October 20th is just a small portion of that, everyone involved has made an impact that could potentially save someone’s life down the road.

The Eagles’ next home game is against Homestead on Tuesday, October 27 at 6:45 p.m..