As the month of September slowly starts to wind down, the Siena Heights Women’s Volleyball team picked the date of Sept. 23 to represent ovarian cancer by having the “Teal Attack” game which was against Madonna University.

The teal color was designated to represent the specific cancer, as well as the month of September. Sophomore Kat Xavier said the game was specified to honor the fallen friend of head coach Kim Berrington. Berrington came to SHU to take over for both the men’s and women’s teams after spending 19 successful years at Eastern Michigan.

Xavier went on to say that Berrington has been nothing but phenomenal to the team and has been doing things to the program that no one in the history of SHU women’s volleyball has done ever.

“She’s changed a lot of the players (men’s and women’s) lives on and off the court,” said Xavier. “She’s the best coach I’ve ever had, and a lot of the other players have had. She’s tough, but it’s what we need.”

The Saints put on a strong showing, especially in the first and third sets, but were unable to fend off the strong and powerful spikes coming from Madonna. The Saints lost 3-0 after losing the three sets 25-21, 25-12 and then 25-21 again.

Madonna, which is also nationally ranked at 15th, was led by sophomore Amanda Hawkins, who contributed 12 kills to the team. Hawkins and SHU’s Abby Whitehead were high school and club teammates at Livonia Stevenson High School and in the AAU circuit..

The Saints were led by sophomore Leze Vukaj, who had eight kills. Freshman Ashleigh Shay also had seven kills and Whitehead also put up a solid six in the stat sheets.

Xavier said the team could have improved on their communication skills, as well as being more aggressive and not backing down because a team was nationally ranked or had a size advantage.

“Since the opposite team (Madonna) was naturally a taller team, we hesitated when hitting,” said Xavier. “We need to work on communication skills overall, intensity during practices and being confident players regardless of the score.”