The Muhlenberg women's basketball team will partner with one of its former players for a special cause during its game against Gettysburg on Saturday, January 25. 

Since the shocking death of her healthy two-year-old daughter Vienna Carly Savino in her sleep on Nov. 12, 2017, Dr. Denise Wunderler '94 has been passionate about increasing awareness of Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC). Despite being physicians, both Wunderler and her husband learned of SUDC when it happened to them.

SUDC, which affects kids 1 to 18 years old, is scarcely known in the medical community and general public. SUDC is the fifth-leading category of death in children ages one to four, yet it receives no public funding. 

On what should have been her daughter's fourth birthday, January 19, 2019, Wunderler founded the nonprofit 501c3, Team Vienna 4 SUDC Awareness Inc. Team Vienna's mission is to increase awareness and research support for SUDC and, ultimately, uncovering causes and preventative measures so other families won't have to endure the pain of child loss.

The second annual Vienna's Day of International SUDC Awareness on May 18, 2019, featured people from all seven continents engaged in activities (walking, running, biking, playing volleyball, doing CrossFit, etc.) while remembering Vienna. Other successful endeavors by Wunderler include delivering lectures to residents and attending physicians in New York and New Jersey, writing the lyrics to "I Think About You (Song for Vienna)," organizing walks and races, and helping to design the Vienna Collection of designer handbags with Lauren Farrell NY.

Information and Team Vienna t-shirts will be available at the game on Saturday.

"I see myself first and foremost as a mommy on a mission," said Wunderler, who played basketball at Muhlenberg and has been a team physician for USA Volleyball since 2009. "Sustaining Vienna's memory and legacy are incredibly important to me."

During the second half of the doubleheader, Muhlenberg will welcome back members of the 1968, 1969 and 1970 men's basketball teams for the 50th anniversary of their three consecutive MAC South championships. 

Those three teams combined for a 49-23 record during their championship run; no other school completed a similar hat trick of three straight titles in Muhlenberg's conferences (MAC and Centennial) until Franklin & Marshall from 2010 to 2012 - more than 40 years later.

The Mules won their first and third championships in Memorial Hall, defeating Pennsylvania Military (now Widener) 70-68 in the 1970 final: