The No. 16 Fountain Hills High School volleyball team lost its play-in match 3-2 to No. 17 Parker in a tiebreaker fifth set last Tuesday, Nov. 1. The Falcons did not have the ending to their season that they wanted, but they did avoid a disaster at the end.

One of the Falcons’ top players, junior captain Sophie Wickland, was rushed to the hospital after the game was over. Wickland was dizzy and dehydrated, and she spent the entire fifth set on the bench and in the Falcon’s nest receiving treatment from the athletic training staff. Wickland reportedly felt better as soon as she got an IV inserted into her arm.

Prior to her exit, Wickland helped the Falcons take a 2-0 lead. The Falcons trailed behind 18-15 in the first set but outscored the Broncos 10-2 to win 25-20. They then cruised to an early 15-5 lead in the second set before Parker tightened up its defense. Fountain Hills still won the set 25-15, but Parker kept pace, splitting the last 20 points evenly.

“In the third set, Parker showed us a lot of what they were capable of,” Falcons coach Olivia Long said. “Defensive wise, they weren’t as easy to get kills on, and we also started to miss some serves, which I think we went through the entire first set without a missed serve. When it comes to getting a lot of points in a row, we can’t do that.”

Parker would not go away in the third set, and they eventually caught up. Fountain Hills led the entire set until Parker scored five points in six plays and tied it at 23-23. Parker would get an ace to lead 27-26, and then a violation against the Falcons on the last play gave the set to the Broncos.

Fountain Hills would once again get an early lead in the fourth set, but this time Parker tied it at 14-14. They continued to move their momentum along, and Parker won the fourth set 25-18.

“I think a comeback was definitely in the back of our minds,” Long said. “I knew, and the girls knew, that Parker was better than what they displayed first and second set. For us, it was going to be maintaining our position and holding our ground, going to expect that they would comeback harder than we had faced.”

The girls kept things even at first, but mistakes caught up to them. The Falcons missed three serves, and the Broncos served four aces on their way to a 15-8 win.

“I think that was probably our biggest struggle, the mental game,” Long said. “The second we started to doubt whether or not we were going to take the game or doubt our abilities to withstand Parker’s strong hitters or their scrappy defense, that’s really when we got down the worst. Girls began to not trust themselves to perform, so they were shanking passes that normally would be perfect, or close to perfect. They were shanking because it kind of becomes a cycle of mentally freaking out and unraveling.”

The absence of Wickland hurt the Falcons for several reasons. She is a dangerous hitter on the outside, and she’s one of the most experienced Falcons. She’s played in four playoff games before, where no other Falcon had played more than two.

Wickland played in two different beach volleyball team playoff matches, one as a freshman and one as a sophomore, and she competed in two individual pair postseason matches last season as well. Neither senior LJ Holland nor Olivia Sopeland had played in playoff a match before, and no current Falcon had competed in an indoor volleyball playoff game before.

“Last year, when most of the girls were sophomores and freshmen, we didn’t go to playoffs,” Long said. “Even for our juniors, this was their first experience, and I think our seniors too. We’re still, compared to some teams, relatively young, being that a lot of our top scorers are sophomores and juniors.”

The Falcons, who graduated two seniors last year and two seniors this year, improved from 11-19 to 22-15. They also improved their state ranking from No. 26 to No. 16, and they’ll have seven strong upperclassmen players next year.

“The girls are on an upward trend,” Long said. “The loss was tough, but like you said, it’s definitely a teachable moment, and it’s nowhere near the peak of what these girls are going to be capable of. I think next year is going to be really spectacular to watch.”