Win on senior night caps three-year WAC unbeaten streak for Modesto’s Beyer volleyball
Fallon Freeman has had her mom by her side every year of her varsity career, and on senior night, Melinda Freeman still was by her daughter’s side, just in a different way.
A four-year varsity player, Fallon has shared the court with her mother/coach as a sophomore and junior during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. But on Oct. 18, Melinda (and other family members) walked Fallon onto the court for the pregame ceremony, then sat in the stands to watch her daughter play her final regular season high school game.
“She wanted to watch my senior year,” Fallon said. “I mean, yeah, it’s fun with her being on the sidelines (as coach), but she just wanted to enjoy my senior year and not have to worry about all the stuff that goes behind the scenes.”
Fallon Freeman and the Beyer High volleyball team capped another successful regular season with a four-set win over Johansen on Wednesday night. The Patriots won their 15th straight game and finished the 2023 campaign with a 19-1 overall record.
Thursday’s win also put the cap on a dominant three-year stretch in which Beyer never lost a Western Athletic Conference game. After a COVID-shortened four-game spring season, the Patriots went 14-0 in each of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Fallon Freeman was one of the steady forces on all three teams. As a sophomore, she was among the team’s leaders in kills. Her junior season, she finished in the top 15 in the Sac-Joaquin Section in hitting percentage and kills, and this season ranks among the top 25 in California and is No. 10 in the section in hitting percentage.
“She brings an intensity and a swing that is unmatched in our league,” said Beyer head coach Sara Gonzalez. “She’s been a captain before but now she’s leading not only with her words, but with her actions as well, and making sure she shows (the other team), ‘Hey I’m here, you guys have to pay attention to me.’”
Looking back on the streak, Fallon Freeman says there were some nerves, especially when matching up against Lathrop, which finished second in the league all three seasons.
“That’s the big game, so definitely there’s a bunch of nerves there,” she said.
Fallon Freeman, Maya Gonzalez and Reagan Davidson were sophomores in 2021 and did not lose a league game together. They were all honored Thursday night. They left with gift baskets, a streak of 42 straight WAC wins and a ticket to the 2023 Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs punched.
“It’s definitely nice,” Fallon Freeman said of the 42-0 league record. “But we have to keep our heads up and not get too ahead of ourselves. ... We still have to play as hard as we can and still try to achieve the goals that we want to achieve.”
Looking for playoff success
Since the beginning of the season, the Patriots’ goal has been to get a playoff win.
Despite all of the regular season success the team had during its unbeaten league run in 2021 and 2022, Beyer was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs at home in sweeps to Hilmar and Nevada Union, respectively.
“At the beginning of the season, I did one-on-one (meetings) with the team and basically all of them said we want to make it past the first round of playoffs,” Gonzalez said. “So that’s been a goal of ours from the get-go. Obviously, we’ve been successful throughout the season, but we want to make sure that when it comes to playoff time, we are locked in and we are ready.”
They know now that with regular season behind them, they have to get to another level if they want to have playoff success.
The Patriots are ranked the No. 27 team in the Sac-Joaquin Section and are a top eight Division III team, meaning they can potentially host a playoff game for the third straight season.
“The last two weeks that I’ve been hammering to them, like this is grind time,” Gonzalez said.
Freeman poses a threat for opposing defenses to deal with, but she’s not the only one. Maya Gonzalez, a senior and the younger sister of head coach Sara, ranks third in the Western Athletic Conference in hitting percentage (.308) and kills (141). Junior setter Ella Gaylor finished as the WAC leader in assists and second in serving aces, with regular season totals of 425 and 64, respectively.
“We learn from our mistakes,” Freeman said. “We’re definitely going to be training a lot harder at practices before playoffs, and I think that’s going to help us go farther in playoffs than we normally do.
“It’s going to take all of us to believe and it’s going to take a lot of communication and just bringing energy. I think we can really go far in playoffs if we truly play our best and give effort. for every ball on the court.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2023 at 12:05 PM.
