The program will be giving away pink T-shirts and shakers to fans to spread awareness of the disease.
“So many peoples’ lives have been touched by this unfortunate disease. Anytime that we can draw more attention, raise funds and contribute to such a worthy cause, it’s great to do our part,” coach Ed Allen said.
Freshman Leah Lawrence said she’s looking forward to her first collegiate Power of Pink match, in which the Crimson Tide will take on Ole Miss in Foster Auditorium at 1 p.m.
“It’s so exciting,” Lawrence said. “Even in club volleyball we would do fundraisers to help support breast cancer, and now getting to play for Alabama and help support breast cancer is really exciting.”
Lawrence said the match brings an extra sense of motivation from the cause it represents.
“It definitely fires us up even more because we have all these people who are support ing us and all these people we’re playing for, even more than normal,” she said.
In last year’s contest, the first for sophomore Brittany Thomas, the Crimson Tide swept conference foe Texas A&M.
“It’s my personal favorite game of the season, and I know for the other girls it is too,” Thomas said. “Last year we were able to get a ton of people to the game, and it was a crazy environment. We ended up beating A&M. I hope that the crowd and everyone is super pumped up this year, and I know we’ll be able to do it again.”
Thomas and Allen said the experiences of the team also place an added emphasis on the importance of Sunday’s match, as redshirt sophomore Krystal Rivers faced her own battle with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma earlier this year.
“Having Krystal battle through cancer, I lost a mother to cancer – it’s touched so many of our lives, so having the opportunity to be involved in that is huge for us,”Allen said.
