As the two 8th grade girls’ volleyball season has come to an end, the girls reflect on what they have accomplished, or didn’t, their last year. The girls “A” team ended a strong season doing very well and so did the “B” team. Both teams were invited to the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Tournament as a reward for their great playing throughout their season. Both teams have been said to have done pretty well but there is always room for improvement.

The girls “A” team had two new additions from last year, so they had to pick up the chemistry from the rest of the players. “I believe that the two new players fit in well and learned how we set up quickly,” says Caroline Draver. Caroline also believes that her team did a great job with impressing her new teammates. “I think that we impressed Cristina and Veronica more and more each game,” she says. They made the new teammates very glad to be apart of their team.

It was a great experience for the team to know what the school has to offer because they had a player who didn’t know much about their team, and yet they came out with a raging success. This personal and team drive to do their best has brought them very far.

“When someone asked me what the Seton was I was very excited to explain, since we all knew and were very excited,” says Mallory Wittkowske. The team was glad they could be a part of the Seton and were excited that they could show everyone their amazing volleyball skills.

Mallory also agrees that they did a great job with the new teammates and she thinks they were a strong addition to the team. “I think both of the new girls brought energy and really helped us. Cristina really helped us in the back row with our passing and Veronica helped us attacking wise and gave us a height advantage!” says Mallory.

There seems to have been a great vibe with this team including new players, resulting in many victories for this team. They worked together as well as they could and drove themselves to do their best.

They made it to the Seton where they went all the way to the “Sweet Sixteen” where there was 16 teams left, but they were defeated by St. Alphonsus. From 5th grade to 8th grade this group of girls have made it very far and have become more and more talented with each day. We give a great big congratulations to the team and wish them the best in their future. Amazing job, ladies!

The girls “B” team had a great season as well, although it was a bit choppy. They had a great start to the season winning every game until they came into the middle where they had some pretty tough games, and had a bit of trouble regaining that strength.  Some players believe that their rough season came from their lack of focus and determination in practice and the games.

“The “B” team could have done better, but because of our lack of focus, we did less than what we could have accomplished,” said setter Mary Callanan. There was quite a struggle with the coaches to get through to some of the girls when it got tough.

“Our coach was really good, but couldn’t get through to some girls no matter how hard she tried,” says Mary. I agree, as being on the team myself, that our players lacked concentration and made it tough for Coach Biernacki to teach us new skills for the help of our team. We could have done much better if we had more confidence in ourselves.

One of the newest players on the “B” team believes that this year was a great big step up from last year. “I think the team improved so much this year and I was so excited about our record,” says Sofia Collins. She believes that we did a lot better in wanting to be successful. She also could see the drive of wanting to win our games.

“We all had the drive to really kill all the games we played this year when last year we were just kind of…chilling,” says Sofia. Last year our team was more relaxed and were used to losing while this year winning was what our team did. We had some struggle but got through it.

The “B” team came out with a record of about 5-5, and we invited to the “B” team Seton. We had some trouble focusing and lost in the first round but tried really hard there, and throughout the regular  season. Nice work girls! Both teams had a very successful year.