Dream season falls short

A year ago, if you were to mention the words volleyball, championship and St. Mary's in the same sentence, you would've been laughed out of the gym.

Yet tonight the class of 2010 was competing in the first St. Mary's volleyball championship in years.

The 8th grade girls almost completed the ultimate Cinderella story, but unfortunately came up one game short of winning the volleyball championship, losing tonight's final 25-14, 25-13.

Sometimes it just isn't there and this was one of those nights. This isn't the pros where you can play a best of series -- it all comes down to one game, and in this game, the girls just didn't have it.

What hurt them most was the inability to string together points. They couldn't gather any momentum and therefore found themselves losing ground little by little. They dug themselves a deep hole in the first set as they trailed early on 9-2. They caught up a bit and cut the deficit to 10-6, but that's as close as they would get in set number one.

When the team doesn't have momentum, they are forced to simply bump the ball over the net, instead of setting up a bump, set and spike, something they did so well in the playoff game. The other team was not spectacular but solid, converting on almost all their serves, and returning serves. They did nothing flashy, no real bump, set and spike, but their fundamentals were incredibly sound.

The second set looked like it had the makings of a much more competitive set, as the girls took a brief lead early, and were still tied at 8-8 with the serve.

However, it unraveled little by little and the match quickly came to an abrupt end.

Nevertheless, this team faced more adversity than any St. Mary's team in the past several years. They were focused and if you asked any one of the girls on the team, they would tell you that if they played this game again, they would come out the victors.

Every girl didn't even start playing any sport until two years ago, and many are playing in only their second year of any sport, period. Yet they've come so far and everyone in the crowd and coaching staff have echoed the same sentiment that this team couldn't have made the school more proud.

It's not easy playing a new sport, let alone having no success the first year. Then to come back the next year with a positive attitude, and make it to the championship is an unbelievable story, and one that will be retold for years to come.

The girls may have lost the game, but they won the respect of the entire St. Mary's family.