The St. Robert 8th grade boys A volleyball team started our season strong, and with a bright future.  With the new addition of Holy Family players Conor Ward, Anthony Giunta, and Patrick Conta, the Bobcats have a good reputation throughout the league.  Our team played well in our first tournaments of the year getting third place in the Saint John Vianney tournament and getting first in the St. Mary Menomonee Falls tournament.  But, currently our season record lies at 3-3, losing games to St. Jude, St. Mary Visitation, and Christ King; and winning games against St. Dominic, St. Mary Menomonee Falls, and just recently beating the number one team, St. Charles Burlington.

On Friday September 27th we traveled out to Butler, Wisconsin, to take on the number one team in the league, St. Charles Burlington, who started off their season undefeated.  I was nervous and didn’t know what to expect.  As we arrived the players seemed a bit weary, most of us coming straight from our ropes course retreat earlier that day.  It was a late game, starting at 8:00 pm, and as the teams warmed up you could notice the talent from St. Charles Burlington.  Standing the biggest on the court was their star, pounding the ball down at will.  You could see why they were the number one team.

The first serve was off and after a powerful spike from St. Charles you could see how nervous we truly were.  Luckily we stayed with it.  Though we were rusty, we still managed to lose the first game by only eight, thanks to some great serving from Andres Torres. The Bobcats regrouped in the second game though, taking the lead.  Sadly we weren’t on our A game.  We missed serves, botched passes, and just didn’t seem to get get a grip.  We would score and then do badly immediately, making it a tight game.  A few teammates carried the load though, and we needed it, but Joe Voit, a key player, showed up late and missed out in most of the action.  This did not help. Some of our players needed to step up, and Andres Torres was one of them. Andres capped off the second game with a great serve streak of 9 points, tying the match at 1-1.

But the real action came in the third game to fifteen.  We had momentum and seemed invincible.  We gained a quick lead of six and were on the right track.  St. Charles believed differently though; the momentum changed as soon as they pounded the ball right down our throats.  St. Charles came back and then were only down by two.  After a couple of sideouts by us, we were up 12-8, only needing three more points.  But the game wasn’t over, St. Charles wasn’t going to give up.  The stars of the opposing team took over and got back in the game.  The score was 14-13 us.  St. Charles had the serve.  As the ball floated to the other side of the court you could notice signs of nervousness.  We got the pass up, set it, and sent a hard spike over.  It wasn’t good enough though. The other team dug the nice hit from Conor Ward and had a nice hit of their own.  This time Joe Voit leapt and blocked it!  The ball came sailing backwards, Gio Luna made a nice diving save, George Linn passed the ball out of the net and Conor Ward finished the game off with a booming spike.  We cheered, because we had upset the number one team in the league!

This win practically handed us a spot in the Seton Tournament.  And believe it or not, we got invited on Wednesday October 2nd.  We had earned a spot in the top ten teams! “It’s an honor to be invited to such a prestigious event,” Joe Voit stated.

Soon after this great feat we headed down to Menomonee Falls to participate in St. Mary’s Menomonee Falls tournament where we took first place, blowing out every team that dare to face us.  We went undefeated in pool play and found ourselves in the championship facing St. Eugene.  This game went by fast. The whole entire team played well. Patrick Conta and I had some great serving to go along with the team’s nice all around game.

So we, 8th grade boys of St. Robert and Holy Family are starting well this volleyball season.  We are for sure Seton bound.  Join us at our games this week!