The 2019 season has come to a close for the Fountain Hills High School volleyball team and while the Lady Falcons didn’t reach the heights of previous seasons the foundation for a stronger future team has been set.

Fountain Hills opening game of the season was on Sept. 3 against Benjamin Franklin. They won that game along with their next two matches.

However, after the first three games FHHS volleyball began rotating between wins and losses with the toughest part of the season seeing them lose five games in a row.

The Lady Falcons didn’t let the roller coaster of a middle season get them down, though, and the team pulled together at the end of the season to pull off four consecutive wins.

Unfortunately the Lady Falcons streak and season came to an end with their lost to Horizon Honors in three sets on Nov. 5.

Reflecting back on the season Head coach Tia Kannapel is pleased with how things shook out.

“Overall I think season went really well,” Kannapel said. “We had an entire team of girls with little to no varsity experience and the team stepped up to the occasion. That’s asking a lot of a team to have to step up and perform at a high level consistently every game. Some positives from the season were the team growing together and truly peaking at the end of the season. We never had a single varsity player be ineligible the entire season which is also an amazing thing. Physically the girls grew with the sport and worked very hard in every game.”

An aspect of the game that Kannapel wants to focus on next season, though, is the mental side of the game.

“We had moments where we showed amazing mental toughness then had some moments where we would come out flat and unable to push through,” Kannapel explained. “I wish we could have found a balance to this as it cost us some very winnable sets.”

Kannapel says that when her team has that mental focus they can pull of amazing feats.

“My favorite match has to be our win over Payson,” Kannapel said. “Not only do the girls take this game very serious but they ended up winning in 5 sets by only two points which was absolutely amazing to see!”

Kannapel, a first year head coach, wants to also make some changes to how she does things next season.

“I truly enjoyed this entire experience (of coaching) and my goodness do I want to give a shout out to every head coach who runs a program with grace,” Kannapel said. “I can think of a few things I want to do differently next year a lot of that has to do with creating more fluidity in the program and truly working harder to honor and cherish our amazing middle school program.”

Finally Kannapel talked about some of the most valuable players to the Falcons this season.

“Grace Abrams played at a consistently high level absolutely every game and provided us with an amazing overall scorer,” Kannapel said. “I also have to give respects to our three senior captains, they cared so much about the team and I think they truly wanted the best for everyone. Anya, Sofie, and Gina also contributed on the court absolutely every game and gave some leadership.”

Kannapel plans to start girls volleyball back up during the summer.