The 8th grade girls A team has their ups and downs, but we will do our best.  The team consists of Mallory Wittkowske, Cristina Bianchini, Maeve Devine, Audrey Poorman, Mia Cudahy, Veronica Madell, and me.  Mr. Wittkowske is our coach and has been our coach since 5th grade.  He does a great job of teaching us where to go and helps us improve our skills.  Our team struggled the first game because we only had two practices before the game and it was the first week of school.  We played the number one team, St. Dominic’s, and we still have issues in some of our games.  We have already been in two tournaments this season so far.  We were in the Christ King tournament and the St. John Vianney tournament.  Our team didn’t do so well in either of those tournaments. In the St. John Vianney tournament, we got out the first day and we should’ve made it to the next day.  We made too many silly mistakes, as if we didn‘t even know what we are doing.  We missed free balls over the net, missed serves, got confused about who goes for the ball.

Our team is made of two setters, two liberos, or people that only play back row, many excellent hitters, and many hard servers.  The setters are Mallory and Mia, the main passers are Audrey and Cristina, and the hitters are Maeve, Natalie, Mallory, Veronica, and me.  We all have our amazing games and our not so great games, it all depends on what team we play and we talk and listen to each other.

My team’s ultimate goal this year is to make it to the Seton tournament at Center Court in Waukesha, and we will do our absolute best. We play October 30th at center court.  There are extremely good teams in this tournament because it is any school that can qualify to be in it.  We work our tails off in every game and I hope we will continue to do that in every single Seton match.  Mr. Wittkowske got a call Wednesday, October 2nd from the person in charge of the Seton and the lady said that we had made it into the Seton! We were all extremely excited that all the work we had put in this season so far paid off.  I believe that if we all play up to our highest potential, we will be able to make it far in the tournament.  We will never be able to do our best if we don’t pass well,  don’t play smart, miss our serves, and don’t listen and communicate with each other.

This year’s team will have lots of opportunities for improvement and excellence throughout the season.  Even though we will struggle, fail, and make mistakes, we will do our very best in every single game.  We will have many games and matches to encourage each other, help each other, and also have the most fun we could have during our eighth grade volleyball experience!  After this year, we will no longer be on any team together. Whether it is basketball, volleyball, track or anything else, we will really enjoy our last year on a St. Robert’s team together.