While the season might not have ended exactly the way they wanted, the Fountain Hills High School beach volleyball team accomplished a lot to be proud of in its 2019 season.

The Lady Falcons closed out the season with a 15-2 record, their last match being in the state championship where they were narrowly defeated by Mesquite High School, 3-2.

While a third state championship would have been a nice way to cap off FHHS’ season, head coach Pete McGloin said he was happy to make it to the big game for a third time.

“I feel like (the team and coaches) maximized our abilities this season,” McGloin said. “We won a lot of tough games and we won our section again for the third straight year. We made the finals for the third straight year also, which was almost unbelievable. I mean, if you had told us about all the injuries and lineup changes we had to go through and said we would still make the finals, I would have not believed you.”

Fountain Hills’ season started back in February when the Falcons netted a 5-0 win against North Pointe Prep. From that point on, up until their last match of the regular season, the Lady Falcons seemed unstoppable.

When FHHS did eventually fall to Valley Christian 3-2 in the last game of the season on April 17, the loss ended a 33 game winning streak for the Falcons that had been going since the 2017 season.

“So in this last three-year run that we have had, the team has gone 45-3,” McGloin said. “So it has been quite the run for us.”

A big asset and reason for the team’s success this year was having seniors on the team who have been a part of Falcon volleyball for those three years.

“I have to touch on Alyssa Barbagallo; she went 13-3 this year but is graduating now with the career record for wins in program history,” McGloin said. “She is finishing her four-year varsity career with a 44-8 record. She is going to be missed, along with all of our seniors.”

That is not to say, however, that it was just the senior players who propelled the Lady Falcons to a third championship game. In fact, the sophomore class had a combined record of 97-15

“We ended up having a smaller roster than we expected this year, so a lot of the players who stepped up and won for us this year were the younger players,” McGloin said. “So we are going to have some great returning players who are going to be key for us.”

Two of those younger players who stepped up were sophomores Jelina Lynch and Grace Abrams, who as a pair won 19 matches, tying the season record for most wins.

“Jelina and Grace had an amazing season,” McGloin beamed. “They made it to the top four of the pairs tournament, where they lost their only match of the season. Before that they had only lost one set the entire season in the semifinals. And of all the Division 1 and 2 semifinalist pairs, Lynch and Abrams were the only sophomores.”

While McGloin could name numerous moments from the season that stick out to him, his favorite memory is one from when the season was officially over.

“One of my happiest moments of the season was yesterday,” McGloin explained. “We had our last day together turning in jerseys, having a little raffle and playing some games. Here was everyone sitting at a table, all hanging out, enjoying each other while we wait and that just brought me so much joy. To me, that is what it is all about.”