Since her mother’s death in December, junior Britany Westphal has had to live with the pain of both losing her mother and not having the opportunity to be with her father and sister.

But even without her immediate family around her, she has still found herself in the middle of a family that will not let her grieve alone. Eight members of her new family, the volleyball team, dropped everything over winter break to be with their sister in her time of need.

“Everyone heard from Natalie [Moore] and most of the team found out the morning after,” teammate Brooke Pickard said, “and decided right away that they were going to make flight arrangements or find some way to travel to Virginia.”

Whether it was Pickard, seated next to coach Mary Tendler at the funeral, or Jessica Barrow and Emily Lucci waiting in line at the viewing, they all felt Westphal’s pain. All with tears in their eyes, grieved as if they too had lost someone.

“That’s what teammates are all about,” Pickard said. “You have your friends in college, but your teammates are like your brothers and your sisters. When something like that happens it was an automatic reaction that we all had to be there.”

Girls made the trip from all over the United States, dropping everything on their winter breaks to be with their sister. Three from Ohio, one from Illinois, one from Georgia, one from Pennsylvania and two from North Carolina, eight in all made the trip on instinct, not because they needed to or had to, but because they wanted to.

“It’s important to have that kind of bond with each other,” Tendler said. “It was nice to see and the effort everyone made to make it up to Northern Virginia. I was proud of the girls for that.”
Although the volleyball team’s season ended much sooner than the girls all would have hoped this sort of event shows that sports really can breed some of the best friendships.

“It made me realize that they are my true friends and that they are there for me through everything,” Westphal said. “The volleyball team has made us like sisters. We spend so much time together on and off the court and off the court is our choice.”

The death of a parent would shock even the strongest of people, but in Westphal’s case she has shown an incredible resolve in her fight with her grief.

“I’m a lot stronger than I really thought I ever would be,” Westphal said.

Westphal has been playing volleyball since high school. Three years into her volleyball career she found out her mom was diagnosed with cancer. Her mom’s fight is over, but Britany’s is just now beginning. All through college she played the sport because her mom wanted her to and it brought her mom joy. But now nearly three months in the aftermath of her mom’s passing she is no longer in search of that drive.

“She’s still playing for her mom,” Tendler said. “If she was doing that before she’s still going to do that. She’s on a mission for her senior year. She’ll always have great memories of her mom and be able to enjoy those. I think her mom will always be watching down on her.”

Managing Editor: Justin Hite - 02/08/07