This years sand volleyball team has high expectations to duplicate the success of last year’s team that took home the state title.

Last year’s team finished the season with a record of 13-1 with the lone loss coming at the hands of Xavier Prep.

During last year’s state playoff run, the Pumas only lost two sets in route to the programs first state championship. The team hoisted the trophy in just the second year of the sport here at Perry. “Beach Volleyball is a cool game to play,” Head Coach Fred Mann said, “So hopefully we do well but have fun along the way.”

The Pumas entered that playoff run as the number four seed and after wins over conference rivals Chandler and Xavier Prep as the team set up a matchup with the one seeded Sandra Day O’Connor Eagles in the state semifinal.

The Pumas swept the Eagles in five sets and then went on to beat Millennium High School to clinch the second state title in school history.

Now as they head into the third year, the Pumas will look to hang another banner in the gym just one year after becoming the second sports team at Perry to win a state title. “We are a pretty deep team so we stay healthy we got a shot this year.” Mann said.

The two teams competing for the chance to capture a state title will be either the combination of Noellle Weintraub and Erin Meyers or the team consisting of Matea Suan and Canon Bongard. All four of these players will be playing beach volleyball at the next level as all have earned college scholarships.

The teams who won sets at last year’s state championship three of the four players on those teams were seniors.

Some underclassman to keep your eye on in the coming years will be Kylie Brinckerhoff and Morgan Seibel. While they may not be first team on Varsity this year, they will compete for the spot for years to come.

Just as they did last year the team will play their home games down the road at Casteel High School as there is not court to play on here at Perry. They will remain the only sports team at Perry to play their home games off campus at an alternate location.

The team’s 12 game regular season schedule was supposed to kick off with a road game against Mountain Pointe High School. However the game against Mtn. Pointe was cancelled due to excessive rain, but the next two games against Chaparral and Corona Del Sol both resulted in wins for the Pumas to kick off their 2019 season.