Faults too much to overcome for 8th grade

It was a bit ironic that the game began with a fault and ended with a fault. The 8th grade girls just cannot consistently serve the ball.

The girls dug themselves huge holes early in both sets, and held late rallies to make it interesting. Unfortunately the hole sometimes is too deep to come out of, and this was one of those occasions.

Kristine served the girls back into the first set with a furious rally of serves, closing the gap in the first set to 24-23. But a fault put ended the set with the girls losing 25-23.

Second set was more of the same story as the girls just could not generate any rhythm. Catharine, this time, led the late comeback, with a string of points off of her serve, but the second set ended 25-18. This was the girls' third straight loss since opening the year with a three-set victory.

Playing again without Marissa, the team's most consistent server, the girls were never in sync. When someone can't serve the ball over, it brings the entire team's morale down a notch and it's hard to recover when balls keep getting swallowed up by the net or sailing out of bounds.

Their serve receives were decent, but when you lose sets by a handful of points, those serves loom large.

Marissa hopes to play in the team's next game, as their record now sits at (1-3) on the year.