Ooltewah's Courtney Swafford (23) returns as Soddy-Daisy's Kylie Brincks (30) defends Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015 at Ooltewah High School.
Ooltewah's Hanna Matthews sets the ball in the game against Soddy-Daisy Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015 at Ooltewah High School.Different shades of pink decorated the Ed Foster Gymnasium at Ooltewah High School.
Banners painted in bright pink letters spelled out "Faith," "Cure" and "Hope."
Pink crepe paper streamers lined the top row of the bleachers, and more than two dozen pink paper ribbons hung from the upper deck surrounding a MaryEllen Locher Foundation poster.
Even a a couple of pink boas lined the scoring table, and bright pink tape covered the normally black lines on the court.
The Ooltewah volleyball team won the night.
The Lady Owls celebrated senior night and combined it with a "Pink-Out" to raise money for the Locher Foundation.
"We started doing this in 2007 and it's always a lot of fun," Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen said. "We may have to work on separating senior night from pink-out night. That's a lot for one night."
After a lengthy prematch ceremony, longer than usual introductions that included mentions of people the players were playing in honor of - mostly family members who are victims of cancer - and typical senior night recognitions, the Lady Owls swept Soddy-Daisy 3-0.
Ooltewah improved to 32-8 overall and 11-0 in District 5-AAA. The Lady Trojans, coached by Peigen's daughter Libby, fell to 7-16 and 3-9. Ooltewah won by scores of 25-19, 25-5 and 25-12.
"I was really happy with the first game," Soddy-Daisy's coach said. "I was excited to see the aggression. But later, their eyes opened up and they started becoming mental cases and overthinking."
Ooltewah senior Alex Biro dominated the second set. She served 20 straight times as a 5-5 score turned into a 25-5 victory. Soddy-Daisy used two timeouts during that 20-point run.
"After serving all that way, you have to stay back there and keep fundamentals in mind," Biro said. "At one point, I'm like, 'Wow, I'm still back here.' Then my goal was to get us to 25 points."
She succeeded.
"She maintained focus and her team played behind her and kept her in the service area," Elaine Peigen said. "It's very rare to see such a run like that."
During the third set, with the Lady Owls comfortably ahead, the Ooltewah bench began cheering for Summer Williams. She needed to make one more dig to record the 1,000th of her career.
She's stuck on 999 and knows of one that slipped away Tuesday. That's OK, she said: She knows she'll get it Thursday.
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.