Mariner volleyball alumni, as well as a community member, took on the current Lady Mariners last Saturday for the 2012 Alice Witte Challenge Game. 

The Mariners won in three sets, wearing new pink jerseys supporting breast cancer awareness month and in honor of the Homer High School volleyball program founder, Alice Witte. Homer High’s gym is named after Witte, who passed away 18 years ago from breast cancer. 

The game included a lot of long rallies with great defense shown by both teams. Coach Beth Trowbridge said that the key to the game was relaxed, focused play. 

The alumni team was made up of Jessica Marx, Michelle Borland, Jessie Erickson, Gretchen Duggar, Brooke DeVaney, Anita Decreeft and Robin Lohse (not alumni).

“We have been working hard these past couple of weeks at going back to basics and getting our fundamentals really solid while raising the bar for expectations for teammates to push themselves out of their comfort zones and try to perform at a higher level,” said Trowbridge after the win.

The Mariners served at 98 percent and ended up with a positive kill percentage. Hailey Oliver and Tayla Cabana let the offense with seven kills each. Caroline Decreeft played as the only setter with 18 assists and led the team with two aces as well. Defensively, Maggie Koplin led with 13 digs, followed by Kristie Mastre’s 9.

The Mariners travel to Skyview today and then host Seward on Saturday for the last home game of the season. The senior night game starts at 2:30 p.m.