Spike For Her

The most spirited Spikeball tournament in America.

Every July 4th, 128 teams take over the beach in Ocean City, NJ to play for women fighting breast cancer. Since 2021, Spike For Her has raised more than $25,000 for patient care through Unite for HER.

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Spikeball round-ups and Venmo gifts both go to Unite for HER. Read our story

Spike For Her on the beach in Ocean City, NJ.

I shaved my mom’s head when I was twelve.

A family selfie from 2018. Zeke, then twelve, is in front in a red sweatshirt, with his mom and dad behind him.
2018, the night we shaved it together.

In 2018 my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer, and I wasn’t going to let her face the mirror alone. Tears ran down both our faces while I did it. I put on a fake smile to look brave for her, which no twelve-year-old should have to do.

Not long after, my grade school principal told me her diagnosis was not my excuse to cry. So I stopped crying and made a promise instead. Nobody standing where I stood should ever feel that alone.

The beach was always my peaceful spot, and Spikeball always brought my friends there with me. In 2021, at sixteen, I made a flyer, posted it to Instagram and asked a few friends to share it. Within days hundreds of people had reposted it. Two weeks later the whole town showed up, and the local news came too.

My life motto is to turn all bad into good. Every tear and every sleepless night from that year goes into one day on the sand, so that somebody in the hardest season of her life can look around and see how big her circle really is.

Zeke Kane, founder

Our mission

Spike For Her brings people to the beach to play for the women they love, so no one facing breast cancer, or watching someone they love face it, feels alone.

What the day looks like

Spike For Her is an all-day, two-on-two Spikeball tournament on the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey, every Fourth of July. The bracket caps at 128 teams and it has filled every year since 2021. There’s a DJ under the pink tent, a cooler waiting for the champions, and a moment between games when someone from Unite for HER takes the mic. Spikeball has sponsored it every year.

The next tournament date goes up on Instagram first.

Two players lunge around a red, white and blue Spikeball net in the sand while a crowd watches, with a pink hotel behind them.
Zeke in a pink number 25 Spike For Her jersey and trucker hat, arm in arm with two Unite for HER staff members on the beach.
Zeke with Unite for HER staff.
Hundreds of players and spectators packed onto the Ocean City beach under a blue sky.
Ocean City, NJ, July 4th, 2025.

Where the money goes

Donations go to Unite for HER, a national nonprofit founded in 2009 that pays for integrative care for people with breast and ovarian cancer, at no cost to them. Its Wellness Passport gives each eligible member $2,000 in therapies such as acupuncture, oncology massage, nutrition counseling and yoga. Unite for HER served more than 10,000 members in the past year.

Unite for HER is the nonprofit that helped my mom feel better during her treatment. That’s why it gets every dollar we raise.