Jadyn Infiesto is an ASU Cronkite student assigned to cover Hamilton High School for AZPreps365.com. 

QUEEN CREEK — While Hamilton is new to boys beach volleyball, the underdogs put up a great fight against Arizona College Prep at the CUSD Beach Courts on Wednesday night.

The Huskies managed to take all but one match to three sets, with the Knights winning four of the five matches. 

The Huskies Team 4, which consisted of Kieron Evans and Keegan Specht managed to win the third set from Knights Team 4, Nolan Bickel and Ali Hijazi the ending score was 15-13. 

This game was intense because Hijazi managed to score a point during the second set where the left side of the court was empty making it difficult for the Huskies to make it over in time to dig up the ball. 

Hamilton coach Krista Sitek said in its first year it has grown and developed to the environment of playing in the sand rather than indoors.

Hamilton freshman Zane Page had no prior beach volleyball experience, but he does participate in an indoor volleyball club. He was paired up with junior Jaxon Her against ACP’s Team 1, Bodhi Nesbit and Cooper Aron. 

Page said that beach volleyball is different from indoor because there’s more of the court that needs to be covered.

“Beach, I think it’s more teamwork in a way because it’s only two people on one court and indoor there’s six,” Page said. 

Her plays volleyball not only for the high school, but he also plays on the Nova Volleyball Club for the 18 1’s as their libero. 

“For our first year, it’s definitely been some roller coasters up and downs,” Her said.

Her describes the game as a trust bond because going in they know the players and they know that they are going to be touching the ball regardless and being involved in the play.

“We worked well in the fight today,” Aron said. “Definitely was not our most polished match, but we found a way to win.”

ACP sophomore Wilson Conrad said he needs to work on different aspects of the game to get prepared for the next season, but more specifically his serves.

“I missed probably about six, so I need to start working on my serves out of practice to do stuff like that,” Conrad said.

ACP coach John Lewis said senior night brought in a much larger crowd than what the boys are normally used to. 

“I think they were absolutely distracted by the bigger crowd,” Lewis said.

The Huskies are now 3-7 while the Knights improved to 8-2.

The Huskies next game is on Monday, Oct. 27 against Perry, which is 12-0. It is scheduled for 4 p.m. at CUSD Beach Courts.