Bocce’s record up to January 6th is 3-0, and they are hoping to work on improving accuracy, consistency and encouragement in their practices.

Bocce played Churchill in a tough game on Saturday, January 6, losing 2-0.

The first match was a 7-1 loss. Churchill came with their game faces on and played hard. Bocce’s strategy of rolling the ball slowly as opposed to faster, helped them take the lead in the second set. However, this just wasn’t enough for the Cats to pull off the win.

The second match was much closer, however, as the team almost went into another set. Coach O’Connor was impressed at the close game.

“It was a really tight game, it came down to a tie game for the second match and we actually went into an extra frame, and they won only by one point”, O’Connor said.  “It was a very tight back and forth game.”

WJ only lost by one point as the final score for the second set was 7-6.

This game may have been Bocce’s best performance this season.  Senior Gerry Gruber felt great about the Cat’s performance.

“We played really well in the second match until Churchill finally pulled it back together and beat us 7-6,” Gruber said. “Overall I think we played much better in the second set.”

Senior Luka Ramirez was a key player last season, and a promising player this season. He had a few great serves, gaining WJ a few points at the end.

“We did very well for what it was worth, we were doing much better than the last game,” Ramirez said. “I’m looking forward to being able to actually win a few games and moving up to county divisionals.”

This is an ultimate goal for the WJ Bocce team this season.

On January 10, Bocce lost their third game this season against Wootton.

Coming out of a close game with Churchill, WJ was looking for a win against Wootton. WJ won the coin toss and was rewarded with throwing the pallina ball, or the target ball. Quickly the players noticed that Woottons floor has a slight lean. Coach O’Connor commented,

“Every floor is different, so we have to kinda learn as were going along, this one definitely had a roll towards a certain side, which made it a very interesting game”, O’Connor said.

Bocce was short two people, so they rotated people through different groups. During the first set, Freshman, Jordan Kelberg had great throws. She ended up scoring 2 points for Bocce.

“I think it went really well because we has so much support,” she said regarding the game,  “but we definitely have room for improvement.”

The final score of the first set came out to be 7-2 Wootton.

During the second set WJ worked hard, but the odds were not in their favor. The final score of the second set was 8-1 Wootton.

Coach O’Connor expressed the emphasis of aim in their practices, and even saw this skill in the game.

“We did see a lot of back and forth amd kids are getting better at working their aim.”

WJ played BCC High school on January 15th and the score was 3-1 BCC. They look forward to their next game on Tuesday, January 23 against Richard Montgomery at RM at 3:30 p.m.