The core group of girls that comprise of the 7th/8th grade girls volleyball team has played together for three years now and as a team, they combined to win three games total coming into this year.
After playing on separate teams last season, the class of 2013 and 2014 reunited for one final run at it, and could cap it off with a championship next Friday night after their straight set 25-21, 25-5 victory in Thursday night's playoff game at St. Emydius.
Their opponent, SAIC, put up a real good fight, at least in the first set, when both teams went back and forth until the 7th/8th graders pulled away towards the end.
It took seven straight serves from the hand of Tiffany in order for the girls to pull out a win in set one.
Trailing 21-18, the rookie to volleyball rallied seven straight points for the girls. Her serves have such a high arc that at times it is deceiving for other teams to read, which helps the team score a lot of points.
Tiffany picked up where she left off to start the second set and served the girls out to a 5-0 lead.
That was more than enough to build team confidence for the 7th/8th graders, and they ended up just dominating the second set 25-5, as the other team did not have a chance.
Overall, the girls didn't play bad in the first set as much as SAIC played well. The two teams met twice during the regular season but the improvement from both teams, and especially SAIC in the first set was apparent.
Even when the St. Mary's girls hit solid serves and spikes, the other team found a way to respond and wouldn't go away.
However, the 7th/8th graders were patient, continued to play their game, not getting frustrating, and eventually wore SAIC down.
Leading 11-3, Jamie, Tiffany's sister served up eight straight which widened the game to 18-3 at one point.
The girls clinched their championship berth on match point when Edwena spiked a ball towards the other team, which they hit out of bounds.
For the second straight year, a St. Mary's 8th grade division team will be in the championship, and so will Isabella and Cynthia, who were both on the 7th/8th grade team last season.
They'll be looking for a different result this time around after losing a heartbreaker in last season's title game.
Barring an upset, the girls will play St. Brigid, who they beat last Friday in three sets. St. Brigid won the first meeting in two sets.
One thing the girls will need to have, more than anything else, is confidence. When they play with a purpose and some attitude, they are at their best, and the teams in their division can't touch them.
But if one or two things don't go their way, they have a tendency to make little mistakes, and lose focus, two things that cannot happen in the championship game.
It didn't happen at all in the second set as they played nearly flawless. They didn't do anything too fancy, but the bottom line was they played error free volleyball, and that's what it will take for them to bring home the first St. Mary's volleyball championship in more than a decade.
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