The Fountain Hills High School beach volleyball team finished the regular season on Monday, April 11. The Falcons ended the season 8-5, and they enter playoffs as the No. 13 seed. This past Monday, April 18, the Falcons traveled to No. 4 Estrella Foothills in the first round of the playoffs after press time.

“Really excited to be in the playoffs in general,” head coach Peter McGloin said. “We are going to be one dangerous team. I think anybody that we play, we have a chance to beat. Now we’ve got to go do it.”

The Falcons ended the regular season with a 4-1 victory over then No. 14 Saguaro. The Falcons played well and knocked the Sabercats out of playoff contention, and afterwards the Falcons honored Amaya Evans for senior night.

Sophomores Emerson Uphoff and Elliana Schulze won the five pair 21-14, 12-21, 15-13, and Bella Garman and freshman Kitrick Garman won 26-24, 22-20 at three. Evans and sophomore Sydney Boeshans won 16-21, 21-10, 15-7 at two, and sophomore Sophie Wickland and junior Mia Kohoutek won 21-15, 21-9 at one. Freshmen Jocelyn Bloedel and Lucia Kalmbach lost the four pair 21-18, 21-16.

Evans finished her lone beach volleyball season 9-4. She said that a year ago, the idea of playing beach volleyball would have been crazy to her. She transferred to Fountain Hills in January and was an instant addition to the program.

“The culture of our program is to be very welcoming to new people and embrace and love everybody,” McGloin said. “Our girls did that, but that’s who Amaya is, so she fit into our program and welcomed everybody into her heart in a short amount of time.”

The team spent about 20 minutes following their win huddled together and sharing their favorite stories about Evans. Evans was always an indoor volleyball player, but said she fell in love with beach this season.

“I was comfortable in my little hometown, and I had to make a big decision, which was uncomfortable, but it was a learning experience,” Evans said. “Change is good, and change is different, and if you’re uncomfortable, then you’re doing something right. That’s what I learned from this.”

Evans is one of six Falcons that has played the same position all year with the same partner. The top three pairs, Kohoutek and Wickland, Evans and Boeshans and the Garman sisters have all remained unchanged throughout the season. However, McGloin did not promise that the lineup versus Saguaro would be the same lineup against Estrella Foothills.

“We’ve got some time,” McGloin said. “We’ve got a whole week before our next game. We’re going to have lots of practices, and we’ll have extra battles going on. I don’t want to say anybody is out, even the players that didn’t play today. They’ve proved themselves in previous games, and they’re going to have opportunities to prove themselves this week.”

McGloin did say that the partnerships have been gelling recently. He thought the Falcons were evenly matched with Saguaro and was happy with their play. He thought they played purposefully, and the Falcons want to build on their success ahead of the playoffs.

Of the current roster, only Kohoutek has played a full playoff game. Wickland and Bella Garman did play together in a playoff match last year, until injury forced an early forfeit. None of the Falcons have ever played a road playoff game, but Kohoutek and McGloin have a similar take on traveling. They said they need to control what they can control, and not focus on the small differences they experience at each location.

“On the bus, we try to focus in before we get there, then we have that mentality,” Kohoutek said. “Sometimes the girls get distracted if the net is high or sand is super deep, so that’s a difficult part. But I think when playoffs come, I think the mindset will click on and be like, ‘okay, it’s game time,’ so it doesn’t matter what these away games are going to look like.”

If the Falcons beat Estrella Foothills, they will play in the second round later today, Wednesday, April 20. They would travel to the winner of No. 5 Mesquite and No. 12 Coconino and play at 4:30 p.m.

The semifinals will be at 5 p.m. next Monday, April 25, at neutral location, Casteel High School. The finals will also be held at Casteel next Wednesday, April 27, at 6 p.m. Neutral site tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students with high school ID.