After a rough end to the girls indoor volleyball season back in November, beach volleyball came into their season with an attacking mindset. With most of the team being made up of girls who also played on the indoor team, they had a goal of getting further in beach than they did in indoor.

“We went further [in beach],” said junior beach and indoor volleyball player Avery Burks, “we only made it to first rounds for indoor but we got to the quarterfinals as a team for beach.”

The pumas lost the quarterfinal game 3-0 to Sandra Day O’Connor who eventually went on to win the state championship. Last year, the team made it to the semi-finals after being ranked 2nd in the state all year, to the same team as this year.

“We had less experienced sand players so there was sort of a rough patch at the beginning of trying to learn beach,” said Burks’ senior partner Jordan Suan. “[Me and Avery] realized at the beginning that we kind of stayed the same in skill while other teams were getting better which was definitely a struggle for us.”

Burks and Suan have been partners for two years and were the only pair from perry to qualify for pairs state. The pair made it to quarterfinals ranked 6th in the division, but lost to 3rd ranked Xavier who went on to win the championship. 

“All the girls have a lot of attack which is why we got as far as we did,” said coach Fred Mann, “They never give up and always go into games with a strong, positive mindset.”

Overall, the team went 8-4 for the season, and were ranked 8th going into playoffs. With six seniors this year, Mann believes next season will be a “season of rebuilding” for the team, and hopes they will all learn from the wins and losses of this season.