The Fountain Hills High School volleyball season starts soon, and the players and coaches are grinning with excitement. The Falcons have more seniors on the team this year than the last two years combined, and almost all the upperclassmen have multiple years of varsity experience.

The Falcons open the season by hosting ALA-Ironwood on Tuesday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m., and then they host Payson on Wednesday, Aug. 30, at 6 p.m.

“I want to win so bad,” senior Sydney Boeshans said. “It’s our last year. We’ve got to take advantage of what we have. We’ve got a pretty solid-looking team this year…I feel like everyone’s really excited for our first game. Everyone I’ve talked to is just pumped, absolutely pumped.”

The girls practiced and honed their skills over the summer. They have high expectations for themselves, and third-year head coach Oliva Long thinks this could be a big year for the program.

“I think this is a year that the last two have been building up towards, and looking at our roster, we have a lot of depth” Long said. “So, let’s say one rotation’s not working out, we have multiple options that we can try out. Everyone on the bench is going to be a player we utilize and everyone on the court is going shine no matter who it is.”

Long talked about the consistency throughout the whole team that has grown together, and said the Falcons have a strong supporting cast as well as a strong core group. There are six juniors and six seniors on the team, and around 20 players on the junior varsity and the freshman teams.

The Falcons have a lot to learn from the last two years. They have a 25-32 record in that span, but the Falcons won seven more games in 2022 than in 2021 and made the play-in tournament last year.

The Falcons face many of the same teams as last year and have an early test in the form of a seven-game road stretch. After hosting ALA-Ironwood and Payson on back-to-back nights, the Falcons won’t have a home game for nearly a month, and they’ll also play in two tournaments during that window.

Long said the Falcons want to prove themselves and that they know what their strengths are. They’ll need to stay focused and mentally resilient through so many road games, but they’ve learned to handle adversity through years of playing together, according to senior Sophie Wickland.

“We’ve all matured in a way,” Wickland said. “We know how to talk to each other a little better…After learning and going through lessons and even going through losses as a team, we kind of matured as one and you learn to handle the situations better.”

The Falcons want to make a championship run and avoid the play-in tournament entirely. To do that, they’ll need a top-eight ranking and to beat some tough opponents on the schedule. The Falcons play at last year’s No. 2 ranked Valley Chrisitan on Thursday, Sept. 7, and the Falcons are in a tough section that includes last year’s state runner-up, Northwest Christian.

Three section opponents were ranked higher than the No. 16 Falcons last year: No. 15 Camp Verde, No. 12 Scottsdale Chrisitan and No. 3 Northwest Christian. The Falcons start their section schedule at Chino Valley at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19, and their first home game back is against Northwest Chrisitan on Thursday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m.

“We accept that; We look forward to it,” Long said about tough competition. “We want to prove ourselves, and we know what our strengths are. We know what we can play up to on our team and we control the controllables. We can’t control how well they’re going to play, or how skilled their girls are, but we can control how we handle that.”

Along with Boeshans and Wickland, seniors Jeneya Boone, Bella Garman, Bree March and Elle Schulze want to lead the Falcons further than they’ve been in the past four years. Junior Zoe Kohoutek returns for her second year and will be a player to watch along with juniors Lucia Kalmbach, Seilah Smith and Katherine Hampton. Juniors Kitrick Garman and Jocelyn Bloedel are dealing with preseason injuries but have both started on varsity since their freshmen year and will bolster the Falcons’ ranks when they come back.