The Fountain Hills High School volleyball team (11-9) only has region opponents and one conference tournament left on their schedule. This week the Falcons face two tough opponents, Scottsdale Christian Academy (8-6) and Northwest Christian Academy (13-8).

The Falcons are now 2-1 in 3A – North Central standings after falling to Camp Verde and beating Wickenburg last week. The Falcons lost 1-3 (19-25, 19-25, 25-20, 20-25) on the road at Camp Verde on Tuesday, Sept. 20, and then won at home 3-0 (25-7, 25-11, 25-14) on Thursday, Sept. 22.

The Falcons were coming off their five-win set over Payson heading into Camp Verde. Junior Libero Sydney Boeshans said that five-set win might be a turning point looking back, because it helped the Falcons realize they could dig deep and pull energy out when they needed it most. Unfortunately, the Falcons weren’t able to come from behind to win two hours away from home on the road.

“I think starting out with a lot of energy helped us out, but we kind of lost the energy in the fourth set,” Boeshans said on Camp Verde. “I think it comes down to determination sometimes too. We knew we were better than that team too…but I think we realized after the first or second set that we needed to put in more effort. I think they wanted it more than we did in the end.”

The Falcons took care of business at home against Wickenburg. The Falcons kept a steady pace and controlled the game all night. Wickenburg’s libero was hurt during the first set and sat out the remainder of the game, so the Wranglers struggled to cover the back row the rest of the night.

“Syd passes probably 90% of the balls in the back row and passes well enough that we can get off consistent plays” Falcons coach Olivia Long said. “The entire game is dependent on your passing game, and if you don’t have those there, you can’t run an offense. It’s extremely important to have a solid libero, which is what Sydney is.”

As libero, Boeshans comes off the court only when a middle hitter like junior Sophie Wickland or sophomore Jocelyn Bloedel is serving. The Falcons had 10 missed serves and 11 ace serves against Wickenburg, and with at least three coming from Bloedel. Bloedel served an ace to win the second set, and she served two back-to-back aces to win the third and final set.

“We have a few players who are not 100% consistent with their serves, but when they’re on, they’re on,” Long said. “[Bloedel’s] one of them. She gets in her head, she’ll miss a few, but when she’s not in her head, when she hits her groove, she’s good. Our 10 miss serves tonight, Wickenburg only scored probably 40 points this entire game, so a quarter of their points are our missed serves. Compared to our first game, that’s way better, but it’s still one of those areas where we can give away points.”

The Falcons went 2-3 in the Epic Tourneys Volleyball Invitational this past weekend. The Falcons wanted to build off their success from Thursday, but after losing three games on Friday, the Falcons bounced back with two wins on Saturday, Sept. 24.

The Falcons only won one set of seven on Friday, and “underperformed,” according to Long. Everyone made mistakes over the weekend that Long hasn’t seen them make in practice or other games, but Long also said it was far from the worst she’s seen the Falcons play under her.

“It was kind of a fluke weekend,” Long said. “I know that they don’t play at that level normally, we’re going to have our bad days, but going into this week we have two challenging matches, so it helped me see which lineups were best for us.”

Junior Elliana Schulze missed both Camp Verde and Wickenburg games for a sprained ankle, but she worked her way back into the roster over the tournament. Sophomore Zoe Kohoutek was still ineligible for the invitational because she transferred to Fountain Hills, but she will be allowed to play this week.

“1000%,” Boeshans said when asked if she was ready to play with Kohoutek. “She’s a great offensive player, she’s so good. She’s a lefty on the right side, which is super useful.”

The Falcons traveled to Scottsdale Christian Academy yesterday, Tuesday, Sept. 27, after press time, and they will host Northwest Christian at home this Thursday, Sept. 29, at 6 p.m. They also host Bourgade Catholic next Monday, Oct. 3, at 6 p.m.

“[Northwest Christian] offensively, one of the best teams, if not the best team,” Boeshans said. “We’re going to have to really be in one mentally if we want to win.”