The Fountain Hills High School volleyball team improved to 20-12 on the season with a 3-1 win over Camp Verde last Thursday, Oct. 13. The Falcons survived a higher ranked team and will play their last home game tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 20.

Fountain Hills vaulted to an early first set lead, 8-2, before the No. 11 Cowboys took a timeout. The Falcons continued to maintain control of the game for most of the first set, but Camp Verde started to come back in the end. The Falcons led 23-13 and won 25-18.

The tide turned and the Cowboys controlled most of the second set. They jumped out to a 10-4 lead and finished ahead 25-17.

“Going back to the first set, we crushed them,” Falcon’s coach Olivia Long said. “It’s always good coming off that and then we go into the second set, and it’s kind of a pattern that we have. We either come out really strong and we falter, or we falter, and we come out strong. Going into the third set, it was really anyone’s game at that point, and we were kind of taken aback by how strong they came back in the second set, so I think we weren’t feeling our best selves, and it took some time to hit our stride.”

The teams split the first four points of the third set before Fountain Hills led 7-2 at a Camp Verde timeout. The Falcons stayed in high gear and forced the Cowboys to call another timeout at 12-6. The Cowboys came out of their second timeout with force and went on a 13-6 run before Long called her second timeout of the set, down 19-18.

The Falcons’ body language was going downhill as they let Camp Verde close in on their score. Long inserted her own energy into the timeout and rallied her troops to be more energetic and communicative on the court.

“After that, it woke us all up,” junior Sophie Wickland said. “We had to push and be a little more excited. They were picking up on our emotions and were targeting people who they could see their faces drop. I just channeled my anger towards my hitting rather than verbally.”

Wickland won the first point out of the timeout with a powerful spike, and the Falcon’s fought hard and won the third set 25-23. The Falcons bench stood and cheered courtside for the entire fourth set to help keep the Falcons energized.

“I was getting angry,” Wickland said. “I was like, ‘come on guys, I want this game so badly.’ I wanted all of us to cheer, and I was angry cheering. When you’re in the moment, and you’re not ahead, it’s hard to cheer.”

Neither team gave up easily, and the fourth set had long rallies between the two. Neither team took more than a two-point lead over the other until Fountain Hills led by three at 22-19. The Falcons edged out another 25-23 set victory to beat their region opponent.

Camp Verde’s two best players were their middle and libero. The Cowboy’s libero covered the back court herself and read the Falcons like a book, and their middle was a great hitter who could finish a point with one good hit. The Falcons were without one of their best middle hitters, with sophomore Jocelyn Bloedel out for fall break vacation, but junior Jeneya Boone and senior Olivia Sopeland filled in and played well in her absence.

“I feel like everybody was worried about it, but in the end, me and Liv weren’t,” Boone said. “I feel like the way we played showed that.”

The Falcons are in the tail-end of their season, but they are playing the best they’ve played all year. The weekend before Camp Verde, the Falcons took third place in the Florence Invitational Tournament and Bloedel and junior Bella Garman were named to the all-tournament team.

According to Wickland, the Falcons had a mid-season slump because they were playing as individuals, rather than as a team. Things clicked in all the right ways for the Falcons at the Florence tournament and playing on “the good court in the tournament” was a turning point for their season.

“I agree a thousand percent. We started working as a team instead of working against each other,” Boone said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been on that court, and just knowing that we could get that far really helped us with everything. I don’t think any of us expected to be there that long. We were there the whole day.”

The Falcons are ranked 17th at the time of writing, good enough to make the play-in tournament for state playoffs. They played at No. 36 Wickenburg yesterday, Tuesday, Oct. 18, and they host No. 10 Scottsdale Christian Academy tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 20, at 6 p.m. Next Monday, Oct. 24, the Falcons will travel and take on No. 3 Northwest Christian in their second to last regular season game.