The Fountain Hills High School varsity volleyball team has not had a home game yet. The team was quarantined on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 8, the day the Falcons were going to host Eastmark and celebrate senior night.

First-year head coach Olivia Long described her team’s initial reaction as a mixture of frustration and disappointment. Her team had just competed in a weekend tournament, and Long was excited to see her team’s growth after that.

The Falcons rescheduled three matches and missed a tournament last Friday in Payson. The Falcons will now travel to Valley Christian on Friday, Oct. 8, host Eastmark on Monday, Oct. 11, and host American Leadership Academy – Gilbert North on Monday, Oct. 25.

JV and varsity players returned to practice this past Monday, Sept. 20, and traveled to Gilbert Christian for a match on Tuesday, Sept. 21, after press time. Long hopes that with one day of practice, she can get her players back to form, but she knows it will require a lot of hard work.

Long gets messages from her players and their families daily, so she said she knows they are eager to get back in the gym. She described following district and AIA protocol as “a waiting game,” and said all her team can do now is put their best foot forward.

“I like to look at the bright side of things,”

Long said. “In my opinion, the bright side here is that this happened at the beginning of our season and not the end, when we’re potentially making a playoff push, or the middle, when we really find our groove.”

Long added that her girls have taken several obstacles in stride, like losing one of the Falcons’ best setters to an ankle sprain in the season opener, and handled them all with grace. Long is proud of what her team has shown her in a short period of time and said she has no doubt that they will give it their all when they return to the court.