3rd/4th graders battle hard in their final game

If there's one thing we've learned about the 3rd/4th grade girls after their first season of volleyball is that serving will not be an issue for years to come.

Avalon, Justina and Amy all hit their four serve limits, and the rest of the team followed suit and arguably had their best game serving, comparable to their victory a few weeks ago at CYO Serramonte.

On the contrary, we've also learned that the biggest need for improvement was their serve receive in Saturday's season finale where they lost 25-17, 25-20.

Many of their games, especially the ones down the stretch which could've gone either way, were lost because they were unable to return the ball off the other team's serve.

Some serves were probably too difficult to return, but there have been a good share that the girls could've returned and today was no different.

In all, they didn't return more than a handful of serves from the other team.

And when the 3rd/4th graders serve so well, they lose just as many points when they can't return the ball.

Aside from three of the girls on the team, the other five participated in their first CYO sport ever, which will be valuable experience not only this year, but for years to come.

Interestingly enough, they already have a leg up on some of the best volleyball players our school has produced, because many of them started in the later grades.

With 3rd and 4th grade being the foundation, their development will be quicker, and the progression from year to year will move along at a more rapid pace.

The girls fell behind early in the first set, but slowly climbed their way back into it before letting it slip away at the end.

Amy served them within a point of the lead in the second set at 18-17, but that's as close as it got.

In their final two games of the year, they improved their scores against teams that beat them decisively earlier in the season, so the progress in just a little under two months has been pretty drastic.

The eight girls who formed our youngest volleyball team in recent history went through some growing pains this year, but the future is extremely bright for these future stars.