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Common opponent for Anclote, Gulf teams is cancer

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By EDDIE DANIELS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 21, 2009

HOLIDAY - Anclote volleyball coach Chris Vergnaud took the wireless microphone Wednesday night and asked the crowd if there were any cancer survivors, please stand.

After several seconds of silence, no one stood.

When Vergnaud asked members of the crowd to stand if they had family members who have had cancer, of the nearly 150 people in the gym, roughly 40 rose to their feet.

That solidified the reason for the night's match.

Anclote hosted Gulf in a fundraiser for the Side-Out Foundation, an entity which raises money for cancer research. Gulf won, 25-15, 25-9, 25-15, but it was very apparent the main focus was to the cause.

"You watch all the people in the stands who stood up who have been affected by cancer, no one was a survivor," said Vergnaud, who lost his mother to cancer four years ago. "That breaks my heart that we're losing so many people to this disease. If I can pack the stands and get as much money in here as possible to send towards research to help out, I'll do it every weekend if I could."

Proceeds from T-shirt and tickets sales, donations, pledges and other means of raising funds were donated to the Side-Out Foundation. The foundation, started in 2004, began to help in the struggle against breast cancer. The entity's mission is to raise money through the sports and has set a goal of raising $1 million in 2009.

This event was equally important to Gulf coach Nicole Clawson, who's grandfather had pancreatic cancer, while an aunt had lung and brain cancer.

"I think everybody's been affected by cancer in some way and I think it's just a great opportunity for people to come together in the community and show that we care and we can come together and out aside the competition aspect of it and just play," Clawson said. "Cancer is everywhere. I've been affected by it in my life and I know it's a difficult process to go through. So anything we can do to raise money and raise awareness; anything we can do to fight the illness is beneficial, so I'm glad we got to participate in this."

Game 1 was the closest of the three. Six times it was knotted in a tie and it took a deep scoring run toward the end for Gulf (4-10) to pull the game out.

With a 15-12 advantage, the Buccaneers went on a 7-1 scoring run, during which Brittany Evers collected four aces and teammate Samantha Seybold collected a kill.

An ace by Leighlani Paselio ended Game 1.

Gulf built an 11-6 advantage in Game 2, forcing Anclote into its lone timeout of the game. Despite the break, the Bucs continued to build on their lead, mounting an 11-0 run.

Anclote lost any chance at a grip on Game 3 when Shyann Lisle tallied two aces and seven Sharks hitting errors. The final game came to an end when an Anclote serve sailed out.

Lisle ended the night with five kills and four aces, while Evers had eight aces. Seybold chipped in with five aces and four blocks and Kelly Hallisey had five assists.

Reporter Eddie Daniels can be reached at (813) 259-7066

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