At one point in the Fountain Hills High School beach volleyball team’s second playoff game, it seemed like the Falcons’ season was one set away from being over. However, the Lady Falcons battled back for an amazing post-season win.

Fountain Hills played its first playoff game on Tuesday, April 23, against Mohave, with FHHS winning all five sets in the match.

The next day, April 24, the Falcons hosted Coconino and won the match 3-2.

The Lady Falcons played in the semi-finials Tuesday, April 30, against Arizona College Prep.

If the Fountain Hills squad was triumphant in that match, the team will play in the finals on Thursday, May 2, at Casteel High School starting at 7 p.m.

Mohave

Despite having their pairs locked up during the regular season, injuries have forced the Lady Falcons to switch up the teams a bit as they go into the postseason.

“I think one of the main focuses in the game [against Mohave] was that we had a different team playing fives. Meghan Bearer and Mia Renner were playing there and they pulled off a nice win,” head coach Pete McGloin said. “Then the main game to focus on was the twos where Ainsley Broersma had to fill in for Barret Nolan and Ainsley just played phenomenally well.”

McGloin said he was happy with the effort he saw from his whole team that match.

“We won handily despite having a little bit of a different lineup,” McGloin said. “Everyone played really well, we played focused, we played hard and we went out there and just kind of took it to them.”

Coconino

As McGloin put it concerning the April 24 showdown with Coconino, it did not look like the Lady Falcons were going to win the match.

The FHHS fives pairs fell to Coconino’s and, despite battling for three close sets, the fours pair of Anya Freyer-Melk and Ashley Beck fell to its opponents as well.

“Here we were, backs against the wall, facing oblivion and the girls didn’t let that impact them at all,” McGloin said. “The season was on the line for Alyssa Barbagallo and Andi Bohlman at the threes and it didn’t affect the way they played.”

Barbagallo and Bohlman won their first set and were down in the second set but came from behind to win 22-20.

With the match score now being 2-1, the Lady Falcons still needed their ones and twos pairs to pull off wins to stay alive in the playoffs.

The ones team of Jelina Lynch and Grace Abrams handled their opponents in two sets but the still new pairing of Ainsley Broersma and Corrin Schulze had a challenge to face, going up against a pair that has lost only once before.

“Broersma and Schulze won the first set 21-13, it was just tremendous volleyball,” McGloin beamed. “Then in the second set we go down 21-6. Ainsley and Corrin didn’t let that second set get them down at all. They knew they had a fresh opportunity to fight and that is what they did. All the decisions they made on the sand were insanely good.”

Schulze and Broersma were able to pull off the win in the third set and send the Lady Falcons to the semifinals.