Denver-Area Volleyball Club Carries the Torch During Opening Ceremonies at Largest Volleyball Event in the World

Ask anyone on the more than 2,650 teams competing at AAU Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championships and they’ll tell you - the girls on the team, the coaches on the bench and the parents in the stands become one big family by the end of a long season.

This week, the Spikes Volleyball Club (Denver, Colo.) is playing in honor of one of their fallen family members, Zoe Anderson, who was killed in a boating accident shortly after team tryouts last summer.

The team wears a patch with Zoe’s since-retired No. 2 on the sleeve and, to open the largest volleyball event in the world, the team escorted the torch into Champion Stadium at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on Saturday night.

Zoe’s teammate and best friend Leah Roseberry lit the AAU cauldron in memory of her fallen teammate.

“The Spikes volleyball organization is extremely touched, grateful and honored by this thoughtful gesture from the AAU,” coach Pascal Guessas wrote on his team’s website.

The AAU Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championships is the largest volleyball event in the world.

It is expected to bring more than $52 million in economic impact to Central Florida with an estimated 40,000 participants, including 9,000 coaches and 600 college coaches attending the largest volleyball event in the world.

The event will feature nearly 15,000 total matches on 166 courts between Orange County Convention Center and ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

Visit www.aauvolleyball.org for more information.