7th/8th grade girls going to the championship

For the fourth time in five years, a St. Mary's 8th grade volleyball team will play in the championship game.

The 7th/8th grade girls punched their ticket to the title match Monday night at St. Emydius with a 25-15, 25-18 straight set win over SAIC.

These two teams met in the first game of the regular season, which saw the 7th/8th graders lose in straight sets.

This time it was a different story.

They were helped by some inconsistent serving by SAIC, who faulted three times early in the first set. The St. Mary's girls took advantage of that and got off to an early lead.

Edwena has played remarkably all season long, but she might have had her best showing Thursday night. She looked like she had some extra power behind her spikes, which the other team did not have an answer for whatsoever.

In order for Edwena to spike it down, she needed some good sets, and Fiona provided just that, setting it up for the St. Mary's representative in the CYO Achievement Game.

It was a good bounce back game for Fiona who wasn't at her best down the stretch. Fiona went back to her serving from years, where she would serve similar to the sprinkler dance. It proved to be very effective as she tallied up several points. Up 23-15, she then perfectly placed a ball in the corner to set up set point. She then went back to the overhand to close out the set.

Set two didn't get off to too good of a start for the girls as they found themselves trailing 9-3. Karina was able to pull the girls back within 10-7, and then a Victoria ace tied the game at 10-10.

One thing the 7th/8th grade girls did a great job of was they never let SAIC get into any sort of rhythm. They will need to do more of the same against St. Finn Barr, their opponent in the championship.

The girls played a pretty mistake free game for the most part, which proved to be the difference in the game. They had less faults, they had less errors and overall just played a much clean and crisper game.

With Edwena on the bench, the rest of the team was able to string together five points to finish the match. Vivianna served five straight balls over for points -- and with the girls up 24-18, the other team could not cleanly return a Victoria spike, ending the game.

Up next, the aforementioned St. Finn Barr, which beat the 7th/8th graders a few weeks ago. That match went to three sets and it wouldn't be surprising if it went to another three this coming Monday night.

They'll definitely need to be more aggressive and net play is going to be a huge factory because St. Finn Barr has some of the tallest 8th graders in CYO. The 7th/8th graders will look to bring their "A" game and look to cap off their season with a first place trophy.