On the court, the Milledgeville and Polo volleyball teams were competitive.

Off the court, they came together for a good cause.

The annual game between the two teams to help raise money to fight cancer went to the family of Jacob Promenschenkel, a 2024 Milledgeville graduate who passed away from bone cancer in August.

“I’m just happy that we all came together,” said Milledgeville’s Kendra Kingsby. “I know that we’re opponents, but in the end, we’re all here for one thing and that’s to support Jacob and his family.”

A bake sale and silent auction were among the ways to help support the fundraiser.

The Missiles (12-3, 3-1) went on to win the road match 25-12, 25-23. Polo is 8-5-1, 1-3.

Milledgeville’s coach of nine years Kurt Folk said the contest against cancer has been a tradition since before he began coaching the team. Each team alternates who hosts every year.

“It’s great that they turn around and donate to the Promenschenkel family for Milledgeville,” Folk said. “It’s always fun, it’s always a good cause and it gets a lot of people out.”

Folk said the teams raised over $10,000 last year for Jacob.

“We did it at Milledgeville last year for Jacob,” he said. “We had Jacob up on our screen watching the game.”

Polo’s Cam Jones said the Marcos and Missiles are friends as well as rivals.

“It’s just amazing to see how many people came together tonight,” she said. “People brought baked goods and everything. It’s just really good to see the two communities really come together to support a good cause.”

Jones said it was heartbreaking to hear when Promenschenkel passed away last month.

“We knew right away we wanted to come together and do something with the volleyball team,” she said. “We usually do a cancer night dedicated to breast cancer, but we decided to switch it up and do it for him tonight.

“I think that just shows a lot about us as teams together.”

On the court, Kingsby and Kennedy Livengood (nine digs, two blocks) each had six kills for Milledgeville and Claire Ottens had five; Lexis Grenoble had 13 assists and two aces.

“We have a lot of chemistry,” Kingsby said of her team. “Our motto is, ‘we don’t get hyped, we stay hyped’. We live by that.”

Folk said the team has preached having energy, believing in itself and being aggressive.

“We really did that in the first set,” he said. “Kind of dropped off a little bit in the second set, which is something we’ve got to figure out, because we’ve kind of had that all year where we’ll put it on a team in the first set, then kind of slide.

“But you’ve got to give it to Polo, too. They came out stronger in that second set.”

Jones said that Polo is working toward playing better at this point in the season. She said a 20-25, 25-19, 25-21 win over Durand (14-6) to open the season showed what the team is capable of.

Laynie Mandrell, Jones and Reese Mekeel (two blocks) each had three kills for Polo. Carlee Grobe led the Marcos with four digs.

“Just trying to move back up,” Jones said. “We’ll have Milledgeville again, and we’ll get them the next time.”