It was another solid year for the high school sand volleyball team, going 6-4 throughout the season and making it all the way to the semi-final round of the state tournament.

“I thought we had a good season,” said head coach Brennan O’Connor, looking back at the past couple of months of play.

“There are more teams joining sand volleyball every year and so the competition is stepping up, which is a good thing.”

The Falcons began their season with a loss to Queen Creek and a loss to Xavier before going on a three-game win streak against teams from Shadow Ridge, Willow Canyon and North Pointe.

A loss to Valley Vista in early April was quickly avenged by a win over St. Mary’s to cap off the regular season.

The Falcons bested St. Mary’s again in the opening round of the state tournament before toppling Valley Vista in the quarterfinals, a team that had beat the local squad earlier in the season.

“The highlight of our season was definitely the win over Valley Vista at state,” O’Connor said.

“We were down 2-0 in the match and we won the last three matches to get the overall team win. That was a very close and exciting match. The team worked very hard for that win and some of our pairs played their best volleyball of the year during that match.”

The Falcon flock finally wrapped up the season in the semi-finals, losing to Scottsdale Prep.

In years past, the Falcons have basically dominated their opponents. According to O’Connor, however, the local ladies are now squaring off against a higher caliber of opponent.

“Teams are improving every year, and so the matches are a lot more competitive than they were in the past,” he added.

“I thought we improved throughout the course of our season and it showed in the state tournament.”

As a pair, Gabby Mei and Jalin Yoder helped lead the Falcons through the 2014 campaign.

“They always played the other team’s number one group and they still had a record of 8-2,” O’Connor said.

“In the last two seasons, they have only lost matches to two teams.”

Overall, though, O’Connor said that serving was the Falcons’ strong suit this year.

“We had the capabilities to go on big runs during the matches due to our strong serves,” he added.

“Our serves helped our team be successful this season. I also thought that all of our pairings had good chemistry together. Being able to work well with your partner is an important part of sand volleyball, and I thought we did a great job with that.”

Keeping a critical eye on the team to prep for next season, though, O’Connor said that he plans to make passing a big focus in the early goings in 2015, as that was the area the Falcons struggled with most this past season.

Two Falcons won’t be along for the ride this time around, however, as the squad will be losing Katie Paulsen and McKenna Schultz to graduation.

“They were both important parts of our team and contributed to our overall team success,” O’Connor said.

“McKenna is also a great leader and she works very hard every day. The team will miss both of these seniors next year.”

O’Connor said that many of the ladies on his team were new this year, and he’s looking forward to seeing them come back with more confidence and experience in 2015.

“We have a lot of returning players, so we can be very successful next year if everyone continues to play in the off-season,” he added.

“I believe we should have a good chance to get to the championship game next year, as we have done in previous seasons.”