This year marked an improvement for the Gloucester High School girls’ volleyball team, as the Dukes finished with a 14-7 record, third place in the Peninsula District and sixth in Region 5A.

The girls fell in the opening round of the Class 5, Region A tournament on Nov. 3 against Warwick, 3-0.

Gloucester’s Lady Dukes volleyball team not only did well considering that they lost starter Desiree Walker for the year in preseason, but also showed improvement in standing and overall ranking. The girls had a 12-6 record last year.

The team worked hard as proven in the results that work yielded, especially considering this year the entire district faced scheduling challenges related to multiple hurricanes. For context, by October the Lady Dukes had played nine games having met for practice only seven times. In this stretch, they still managed to start 7-2 despite a lack of practices.

In spite of falling in the regional tournament, the girls put up a tough fight against ...