DALLAS - There is constant sound of pounding, grunts and cheers at the Dallas Convention Center.

The best girl's volleyball teams in the country - 788 of them - are in Dallas for the girls USA Junior Olympic Champions.

And they are literally from all over the country like the Imi Ike team from Hawaii.

"We definitely traveled farther, but that just pushes hard to show the local girls what we got," said Tatiana Santiago, an 18-year-old on Imi Ike.

Most of the teams have been preparing for this since January.

"It's a lot of hard work," says Sara Delacey, who is on a team from Minnesota. "Hopefully we're one of the best."

They compete in three classifications, in age groups from 12 to 18. Many have been working most of their lives to get here.

"There's so many girls that play volleyball and it's a great sport, it's a lifetime sport," says Kristy Cox, the event director for USA Volleyball.

They play on 48 courts, filling much of the convention center. It's the girls championships' first trip to Dallas since 1998.

"To play all these other really good teams is a lot of fun," Delacey says.

There are 9,000 girls, including that island of them from Hawaii. They won their first match.

"It's was frustrating, but I guess we pushed through," Santiago says. "It was kind of like a wake-up call."