Besting Trivium Prep in a 3-2 nail-biter of a championship showdown, the high school beach volleyball team has earned the program’s first state championship.

After cruising through the regular season with a nearly perfect record and muscling their way through the first three rounds of tournament play, the Lady Falcons took on Trivium Prep on May 3.

“It was a phenomenal battle and about as close a match as you can get,” said head coach Peter McGloin. “When we won state for indoor volleyball, that last game was just an hour of play. For beach volleyball, that last day was three hours of stress, so I think the team was emotionally exhausted when it was all over.”

McGloin said the Falcons played the exact opposite as in the semifinal match-up, where the team went down by two matches against Chandler Prep before earning three final victories to continue on in tournament play.

“In the finals we went up 2-0, as opposed to being down 2-0 in the semifinals,” McGloin said. “But while we won our fours and fives matches, we lost our twos and threes, so it all came down to the final match at ones.”

McGloin said sickness and injury meant he had to change up the lineup a bit, with all three of the team’s freshmen coming up to play in the championship round.

Jen Stricker and Erin Soloman held down the team’s fourth spot with Gina Woods and Mia Renner playing at the five spot. Both teams went on to claim victories and give the Falcons an early lead.

“Woods and Renner are two freshmen who came to the team late because of basketball,” McGloin said. “They started the season as our eighth team and grew so much. They actually hadn’t played a big match in weeks and then stepped up in the state finals to play really, really well. They earned it.”

McGloin said that the positive momentum may have gone to the team’s head a bit, as play wasn’t as strong as usual in the twos and threes spots.

“They were undefeated in those spots all season,” McGloin continued. “I think maybe we felt a little too good about ourselves, because those are strong, strong teams for us. We didn’t really look like ourselves out there. We really did fight hard at the end, never giving up, but we went on to lose those two matches in a row.”

The three team consisted of Ana Jackson and Alyssa Barbagallo with the two team made up of Amelia Charles and Rylee Bell. While they didn’t earn their final win of the season, McGloin said the Falcons would have never made it this far without their consistent, quality play.

Heading into the final showdown, McGloin said the atmosphere was electric as KC McMahon and Alexa Armenta stepped onto the court. McGloin offered a big thanks to everyone who showed up to cheer on the team, including friends, family members, classmates and community members.

“There were people there who weren’t even affiliated with the program,” McGloin said. “It was tremendous support. We have such a wonderful community, to come out there and be so loud for us.”

McMahon and Armenta gave the crowd something to cheer about, too. They actually went down 21-7 in the first match, but battled back to win match two 21-14.

“They didn’t let that first loss hurt them,” McGloin said. “They came out with more fire and more aggression.”

Up 6-2 in the final set, the Falcons’ lead slipped and Trivium managed to equalize and even move ahead by two.

“I have to give a shout-out to Alexa Armenta, because she really stepped up when the pressure was its greatest,” McGloin said. “She rose to the occasion and played fantastic volleyball.”

The local ladies continued to fight, eventually earning back the lead and wrapping the game up at 15-11, helping cap off a top season with a state title.

“Life is infrequently a straight line,” McGloin added. “There’s always going to be some setbacks and some down times. But these ladies showed mental resilience and always fought back when it mattered, so I was very proud of them.”