After a week off from competition for spring break, the Fountain Hills High School sand volleyball team had a little dust to shake off but still managed to keep its now 26 win streak alive and well.

The Lady Falcons’ first match after break was on March 20 against Chandler Prep. FHHS won the match 4-1.

Last week’s competitions concluded on March 22 against Highland. Despite playing with an altered roster, FHHS still won the match 4-1.

Sand volleyball has two matches this week with the first being away against Horizon Honors happening today, March 27, starting at 3:30 p.m.

The final match of the week will be on March 29 at home against Veritas Prep starting at 4 p.m.

Chandler prep

Despite thinking that, overall, it was a great week for the Lady Falcons, Head coach Pete McGloin said he felt that practices leading up to Wednesday’s match against chandler Prep were a little off.

McGloin said he saw some of that translate over into the games against Chandler Prep.

“Our pairs were not sharp against Chandler Prep on Wednesday and there was an unusual amount of nerves,” McGloin said. “Chandler Prep was the last school to beat us back in 2017, so maybe that is why, but we pulled off a 4-1 win.”

Despite feeling that most of the pairs were off their game, McGloin continues to be impressed by his pair at the five position.

“Jordan Pace and Ainsley Boersma, at fives, stood out to me again,” McGloin said. “The pair went down 15-6 in the first game but came back to win 21-19, and then dominated in the next one, winning 21-7.”

Highland

Even though the Lady Falcons were down a couple of their regular players for their match against Highland, the team had regained its mojo once it was time to go up against a much larger team from Highland.

“Down a couple players on Friday, we had to play different partnerships and only had two of our regular teams in action,” McGloin said. “However, by now our rust was gone and all of our pairs played well, even while adjusting to new teammates. We played aggressive and purposeful Falcon beach volleyball while beating a school with an enrollment of over 3,500, over five times the size of our school.”

The creation of new pairs for this match led to a different duo in the ones spot.

“Jelina Lynch and Grace Abrams played at ones for the first time and put forth their best match of the season, beating a very good opponent 21-16, 21-11,” McGloin said. “They played fast and in the moment, and showed the tremendous potential those two sophomores have together.”

Sophomores stole the show this week for the Lady Falcons, with the six on the team playing in both matches. All told, the sophomores have a combined career record of 52-2.