Lady Tigers to host Dig for a Cure Night Thursday

By Eric Wade

Daily Mail Sports Editor

The Nevada Lady Tigers volleyball team is set to celebrate a very special night Thursday. The fourth annual Dig for a Cure Night at Nevada High School is set to go on when the Lady Tigers return to Wynn Gymnasium to take on the McDonald County Lady Mustangs.

"It's a good cause and I mean, there's been a lot of work put into this and a lot of help from the community," Lady Tigers head coach Ashley Thoreson said. "I mean, I haven't had to do much of anything."

The night's festivities will feature a silent auction, face painting, pink and purple Mardi Gras beads, T-shirt and memorial volleyball sales and cookies.

The memorial volleyballs will be sold for $1 each or six for $5 and will be displayed on a net with the name of a victim of cancer, chosen by the purchaser. Those volleyballs will be cut out and hung on the net by members of the Nevada Regional Technical Honor Society.

All proceeds from the sale of memorial volleyballs and the 600-plus Dig for a Cure T-shirts that have already been sold and were scheduled for delivery on Wednesday will go to Vernon County Cancer Relief.

The items for this year's silent auction were collected by Amy Ast and a team of volunteers and will include a baseball and Duck Commander basket donated by Adam and Jennifer LaRoche, two iPods, a Bose headset, an electric guitar, Roy Rogers Jr. tickets, Neal McCoy tickets, Royals baseball tickets and dozens of other items.

Anyone who bids during the silent auction is invited to place an unlimited number of bids. All items won in the auction must be paid for with cash or check only and picked up at the end of the night.

Throughout the night, tickets will also be sold for a chance to win an autographed game volleyball that will not only be the pink and white ball used during the match, but will also be signed by the members of the Lady Tigers team. Proceeds from the raffle will be split between Relay for Life and Vernon County Cancer Relief.

The tradition of Dig for A Cure Night is one Thoreson and her staff have continued on from something that was started by former Nevada Lady Tigers head coach Becky Lowery. In 2010, Lowery hosted what was then intended to be a one-time event she called Dig Pink Night, gaining inspiration from the loss of her sister to breast cancer.

The event was so well-received that it ultimately became an annual tradition that has continued, even in Lowery's absence.

"We've kind of just carried it on and it's now become kind of something that's nationwide," Thoreson said. "We kind of do our own. That way, we can give the money to local groups and stuff like that and it, you know, means more to the girls and helps the local community."

Most of the work that goes into organizing the event was done this year by Lady Tigers freshman volleyball coach Ranea Schulze and for her, there is a much more significant meaning to the night's events.

"Last year, I was really glad that we focused on all cancers and had the pink shirts because I lost my mom to leukemia in 2008," Schulze said. "And a lot of our volleyball girls who have probably sold the most are ones who have had family members affected, either currently going through cancer treatments or have lost their lives. So, you know, it probably takes on somewhat of a deeper meaning for some of our players than others."

This year's Dig for a Cure Night is set to take place inside Wynn Gymnasium, when the Lady Tigers square off against the Lady Mustangs in a varsity/JV doubleheader. The first of those two matches is set to begin at 5 p.m.