MILWAUKEE — The nationally-ranked Marquette University women’s volleyball team had to postpone its weekend series against Creighton because of COVID-19 issues on the Creighton team. For one of the Golden Eagles, this season has been especially emotional. 

Marquette volleyball player Sarah Rose was told in September that she had a form of bone cancer. Her treatments are going well and Sarah is inspiring people by how she is handling the battle.

The news that you have cancer can shake your life to the core.

“It’s never something you really expect to hear or really want to hear that you have cancer but initially I was just heartbroken,” said Rose. “I didn’t know what to think at the beginning, a lot of things were racing through my mind.”

Added Marquette volleyball coach Ryan Theis: “One of the more difficult moments of my career to have somebody that you’ve known for that long and spent that much time with having to watch her, see her get that news, and then share it with the team, it was very hard."

Sarah has been getting treatments in Illinois close to her family. She gave the team the pregame speech last weekend before they took on DePaul.

“She did way better than I probably ever have. It was awesome, she got them extremely excited and emotional and charged to play for her,” said Theis. ”So to watch her go through it, her amazing attitude, just so fortunate too that she has had very few bad side effect issues. Very few days where she has been totally laid up, you know the medical staff has been so good with her.”

Sarah is thankful for the emotional support she’s gotten from her family and her teammates.

“I am so honored and really appreciative that not only my team but the rest of the university, all of the athletic department, and all of the other teams are honoring me and wearing gold jerseys but I am really thankful that my team is honoring me before the game this weekend,” she said. “It’s really inspiring watching their games and watching their scrimmages to me just because I’ve always been a part of it. But looking from the outside it’s just a new look at everything and I get inspired by them and all of the hard work and all of the dedication and strength that they put in every single day in the gym and in the weight room it just really inspires me to keep pushing and to keep fighting.”

“I think she got cheated out of her senior year. So you know we wanted to do whatever we could to make her feel special," said Theis.

If you want to show support for Sarah on social media, you can use the hashtag #goldforsarah. Those wishing to donate to families affected by pediatric cancer, go to qgiv.com.