By Drew Teague

One fraternity turned out the lights to get the games started with the UK women’s volleyball team.

Pi Kappa Phi painted up under black lights for a new event, “Blacklight Volleyball,” to benefit its philanthropy, Push America, a charity that works to improve the lives of disabled persons.

On Saturday night Pi Kappa Phi started a six-team tournament in Alumni Gym with three members of the UK volleyball squad in attendance to referee and line judge the tournament.

With such a large-scale event, Pi Kappa Phi has been working for a while to get this event pulled off, said Tyler Frazier, telecommunications junior and Push America Chair.

“You have to jump through a lot of hoops to set something like this up,” Frazier said “We really had to get a head start on (planning).”

A team of Phi Sigma Rho members came prepared with a volleyball decorated with highlighter. The members were excited at the chance to compete, said Cassie Cox, a member of Phi Sigma Rho and electrical engineering freshman.

“We wanted to do Sigma Spike but that got canceled, and we were like, ‘Oh, blacklight volleyball, we’re going to do it,’ ” Cox said with a laugh.

The outer edge of the net glowed purple under the black lights and green lines lit up the net, helping participants see where to hit the ball. Frazier said he thought this would be a great event, especially after hearing of it at a leadership conference.

“This idea came up and someone had done it and said it was successful,” Frazier said. “I thought it would go great at UK, with such a great sports tradition.”

According to the Facebook page, Pi Kappa Phi wanted teams to be creative and make blacklight jerseys, which is exactly what the members of Phi Sigma Rho did. They decorated  their shirts with highlighters, with their team name on the front and a number and nickname on the back and wore tall white socks as well.

“We started (working on our shirts) a couple of hours ago,” Cox said.

Between games, the three UK volleyball team members were out on the court bumping and setting the ball to each other as best they could with the lack of light that they weren’t use to.

Gretchen Giesler, an engineering sophomore and UK women’s volleyball team member, thought the event was a great idea.

“It’s really hard, because it’s dark, but I think it’s a fun idea,” Giesler said.

With the cooperation of the volleyball team, Frazier said, Pi Kappa Phi  earned more than just their help this game.

“We actually formed a partnership with the volleyball team, and we are going to be their ball boys for the coming season,” he said.