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Regular season drawing to a close for beach volleyball

Posted 4/12/22

The Fountain Hills High School varsity beach volleyball team went 2-1 last week, improving to 7-5 on the season. The Falcons beat AZ College Prep and Payson 4-1, but lost to Northwest Christian 3-2. …

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Regular season drawing to a close for beach volleyball

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The Fountain Hills High School varsity beach volleyball team went 2-1 last week, improving to 7-5 on the season. The Falcons beat AZ College Prep and Payson 4-1, but lost to Northwest Christian 3-2. The Falcons’ “backs are against the wall,” according to head coach Peter McGloin, and they had to fight to secure a playoff spot for the first time in a long time.

The No. 12 Falcons needed to beat No. 14 Saguaro last Monday, April 11, after press time, to secure their playoff berth. The Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) started keeping state rankings records for beach volleyball in the 2017-18 season, and since then, the Falcons have never been lower than a three seed entering the playoffs.

Beach volleyball has been a varsity sport for barely over a decade, and some schools are just starting their programs or still do not have a team yet. As the pool of teams got larger, the need for ranking increased. In the 2016-17 season, the Falcons went 11-1, were the No. 1 seed in their section, and won the state championship, and that was only McGloin’s second year at Fountain Hills. McGloin’s first season, the Falcons went 6-6 and were a first-round exit in the playoffs.

“If the process is right, the results will come,” McGloin said. “And that’s been our goal for the entire year, to get that process right.”

The Falcons used eight different lineups over their three games last week. McGloin said they are still searching for their best lineups, and he reunited freshmen Jocelyn Bloedel and Lucia Kalmbach in the four pair later in the week, after Kalmbach played one of her best games of the season against AZ College Prep.

“We’re not starting to change the way we play based on the score and we’re playing the same way all the time,” McGloin said. “That is when you're truly becoming a veteran. Lucia is kind of showing me glimpses. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to take some steps back in time, but now we’re seeing that progress forward.”

In general, McGloin said the 4-1 win over AZ College Prep on Monday, April 4, “wasn’t a great win,” but one the Falcons had to win. Junior Mia Kohoutek and Sophie Wickland won 21-18, 21-16 in the one pair, and senior Amaya Evans and sophomore Sydney Boeshans won 21-16, 21-15 at two.

Sophomore Bella Garman and freshman Kitrick Garman won at three, 21-19, 21-12, and sophomore Bree March and Kalmbach won 21-11, 21-15 in the five pair. Bloedel and sophomore Savannah Peterson lost 21-9, 21-12 at four.

Two days later, on Wednesday, April 6, the Falcons nearly beat No. 8 Northwest Christian. Every pair went the distance and took the Crusaders to a third set tiebreaker. The Garman sisters won the three pair 19-21, 21-18, 15-13, and Bloedel and Kalmbach won the four pair 21-10, 16-21, 17-15.

“For them to lose the first set in a close one, win the second set in a close one, win the third set in a close one, I mean that takes a lot of togetherness for the sisters to stick together ,which has been trouble for them sometimes in the past,” McGloin said. “They were playing to win. You’re not going to beat a good team just by hitting the ball over the net. They were being purposeful. They were being gritty, and just fought, and had that will to win that we’re always searching for. That was some huge growth for that pair, same for us at the fours”

In the other matches, Kohoutek and Wickland lost 17-21, 21-17, 15-9, Evans and Boeshans lost 21-15, 15-21, 15-8, and March and Peterson lost 19-21, 21-8, 15-6.

“Overall, it was a really good day, just a really, really, really tough, disappointing loss to a rival in our section,” McGloin continued. “We still had a chance to host a playoff game and finish in the top eight. Now our backs are against the wall because we lost that one.”

The Falcons finished last week with a road trip to Payson. Payson’s beach volleyball program is in their inaugural year, and their first home game in school history was hosting rival Fountain Hills.

The Falcons beat Payson 5-0 earlier in the year, but they did not take the Longhorns lightly last week. The Longhorns lost to Northwest Christian 3-2, same as the Falcons, just the day before, and McGloin said that was a wake-up call for the team.

Kohoutek and Wickland beat Payson 21-6, 21-3 at one, and the Garman’s won 22-20, 21-19 at three. Bloedel and Kalmbach won 21-17, 22-20 at four, and sophomore Emerson Uphoff and junior Olivia Sopeland won 22-20, 21-15 at five. Evans and Boeshans lost 19-21, 17-21.

If the Falcons claimed victory this past Monday over Saguaro, then they will have a week to prepare for playoffs. AIA Division II beach volleyball playoffs begin on Monday, April 18, and the Falcons would have to travel for the first round for the first time since the 2015-16 season.