York Suburban 'plays for Ayden' to get leg up on rest of YAIAA Div. II girls volleyball teams

Tears are not uncommon after a team battles to win a division championship.

But for York Suburban, and many of their fans, the biggest tears came before Thursday’s girls volleyball match against Susquehannock.

Little more than an hour before the Trojan seniors celebrated a 3-0 win for their fourth straight division championship they were remembering Ayden Zeigler-Kohler.

He was 9 years old when he was diagnosed with an aggressive, inoperable brain cancer. He fought for more than seven months before he died at 10 years old. His parents created the 4AydenStrong Foundation to help other families in similar situations and to promote pediatric cancer research.

On Thursday night the Trojans held their annual Black Out to raise money for the foundation. Over the years they have raised nearly $80,000 through donations, sponsorships, silent auctions, raffles and T-shirt sales.

“We talked about it in practice yesterday,” York Suburban junior Colbie McKenna said after the match. “It’s bigger than the game. Ayden never got to high school, never got the opportunity to play. We had the opportunity, and today we were playing for him.”

And play they did.

The Trojans and Warriors went the distance the first time they met this season. The match was much quicker on Thursday, as York Suburban won 25-14, 25-13, 25-14 to snare a two-game buffer over the rest of the division.

McKenna, last year’s Div. II Player of the Year, put on a hitting clinic. She hit from both outside positions and from the back row to finish with a match-high 13 kills.

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But she wasn’t the only one putting on an offensive performance.

Paige Garner started things off with seven of her eight kills, all from the right outside position.

“This game, it’s a huge charity event, I just wanted to do it to honor Ayden,” Garner said. “I’ve been struggling the past couple games, and I knew I just had to put my mind to it. All my coaches said to ‘Hit the ball, hit the ball, hit the ball’ so I just put my mind to it.”

Garner, one of the few seniors on York Suburban’s team, found open spots just inside the sidelines and in deep corners to register her kills.

The second and third games were fueled with kills by McKenna and sophomore Rowan Holler, who finished with 10, and a couple of in-your-face blocks from sophomore Meghan Everett.

Sophomores Madison Stockman and Lyla Chevaux combined for 37 assists to feed the Trojan hitters.

When the final ball fell the York Suburban players shed a few more tears. But this time they were happy.

Shelly Stallsmith covers York-Adams high school sports for GameTimePA and the USAToday Network. Connect with her by email mstallsmith@ydr.com or on X, formerly Twitter, @ShelStallsmith.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: York Suburban 'plays for Ayden' to get leg up on rest of YAIAA Div. II girls volleyball teams