The high school volleyball program is on fire, playing two regular season matches and eight tournament matches last week without dropping a single set to their opponents.

Going undefeated in tournament play, the local ladies also brought home the first place plaque from the two-day event hosted by Chandler Prep.

The season continued Tuesday evening, Oct. 4, with a road match versus ASU Prep and the Falcons will be back on the home court tomorrow, Oct. 6, for a 6 p.m. showdown against the team from Casteel.

The team will be back in action next Tuesday, Oct. 11, for a 6 p.m. road match against the squad from Yuma Catholic High School.

North Pointe

The Falcons began their week with a businesslike victory over the host team from North Pointe Prep on Sept. 27.

The local squad was in complete control throughout the evening, besting North Pointe by final scores of 25-10, 25-14, 25-9.

Kailey McMahon recorded nine kills on the night with Amara Feyrer-Melk recording eight and Amelia Charles recording six.

Alyssa Barbagallo and McMahon had two aces apiece, with Paula Iwaoka recording five digs and Barbagallo carding four.

Valley Christian

The Sept. 28 outing against Valley Christian was one that coach McGloin was especially looking forward to. It was expected to be a neck-and-neck showdown but, in the end, the local ladies managed to put up a convincing display of dominance, winning three straight sets at 25-16, 25-21, 25-14.

McMahon recorded 17 kills this outing, with Iwaoka gathering six aces.

Barbagallo and Iwaoka had 12 digs eaich with Corrin Schulze chipping in 16 assists.

“I felt going in that we’re two of the top teams, and they’re a rival, so there were a lot of reasons to look forward to this game,” said head coach Peter McGloin. “And then we played spectacular volleyball, so it was great. It wasn’t even close. When we play the way we can play and show we’re the hardest-working team in the gym, we make good teams look bad.”

Tournament

Despite playing two games back to back, the local ladies hit the Chandler Prep weekend tournament fired up and never slowed down. They bested all of their opponents 2-0 through both days of tournament play, including American Leadership Academy, Bourgade Catholic, Higley and window Rock on Sept. 30 and Parker, Show Low, Benjamin Franlkin and Chandler Prep on Oct. 1.

Toppling their hosts in the championship round, the Falcons came home with a well-deserved first place standing.

“We knew maintaining a high level of energy and intensity would be a challenge, but the girls did it with flying colors,” McGloin added. “Even at the end of the tournament, the girls came out fiery and hungry and showed off some Falcon fury at its finest.

“You couldn’t ask for more.”

After this week of big games, McGloin made note of the fact that one Falcon in particular has plenty to be proud of.

“Junior outside hitter KC McMahon set the school record for kills in a career on Saturday,” he said. “She set the single season record last year and already broke the career record in less than two seasons on varsity so far. Pretty impressive.”