POCATELLO — It takes Ashleigh Sayer-Frederick about one second to pinpoint the most important match coming up for her Grace Lutheran High School girls volleyball team.

“Oct. 5, at 5:30 p.m. vs. Mackay, right here,” Frederick said. “If we win that game, we will have gone undefeated for the entire regular season.”

The Royals volleyball team is truly having a breakthrough season this fall under Sayer-Frederick’s leadership. Even with only one senior on the squad, and just a total of seven players, Grace is 15-0 on the season after recovering from a slow start to sweep Watersprings High School of Idaho Falls, 25-22, 25-11, 25-16 at the Grace gym on Saturday.

Grace Lutheran High School has been in existence only since 2015, and their varsity athletic program is younger than that. The Royals have never sent a varsity team to a state tournament in any sport in their short period of existence.

“I knew we were a good program and I knew we had some great athletes,” said Frederick, who played volleyball at Idaho State and Wichita State, and is in her second season as the Grace volleyball coach. “But I was surprised for us to go this far (undefeated). We had a lot of really close games with Mackay and Rockland. They’re great legacy programs. But I was super-proud of my girls because each team we took it to five (sets) with, we always fought and found a way to win.”

Just about everybody associated with the Grace program has that match with Mackay on Friday circled. The Miners have traditionally been an athletic powerhouse in Idaho’s smallest classification, and nobody is expecting an easy rematch later this week.

“When we played at Mackay, that was our closest game score-wise,” said Frederick, who also teaches kindergarten at Grace. “They’re just such a great program, and they have such a legacy of winning. And they’re just very competitive. They’re farm kids and they’re fighters, and we just had to dig deep to win and I was really proud of our kids.”

Mali Hall, the only senior on the Grace roster, is already feeling the adrenalin as she looks ahead to the Mackay rematch.

“I’m definitely nervous,” Hall said. “I’m super excited. It should be a really good match. We won once against them, but this is really the time when champions are made, and if we beat Mackay, we definitely have a shot at state.”

After concluding the regular season with the Mackay rematch, the Royals will compete in the combined Fifth-Sixth District Tournament in Class 1-A, Division II. There are nine schools in the combined district, which gets 2.5 berths to the state tournament. The combined District Tournament will be held Oct. 14 and 17 at Shelley High School.

“Man it’s been a fun ride so far,” said Jeremy Hess, who has been the athletic director at Grace since the high school opened. “We’re really excited about what we’ve done so far, and what we’re yet to do. We’ve positioned ourselves really well to make a bid at the state tournament for the first time ever — in program history and in school history. We’re not there yet, so we won’t count that as a done deal yet, but we’re really excited about the opportunity that we have.”

The Royals feature Mali Hall as the only senior, juniors Kirsten Krause, Lily Perry and Samantha Moretti, and freshmen Isabella Hall, Maleah Iverson and Sarah Krause. Frederick outlined what each player brings to the table for the Royals:

Mali Hall: “She is super consistent. She is a really good, silent leader, but she’s very strong on the court.”

Perry: “Lily is our setter, and in volleyball that’s like a quarterback. She does a lot of important things for our program.”

Kirsten Krause: “She was player of the week last week. She’s a phenomenal athlete and just finds kills.”

Moretti: “She is our libero and I think sometimes she’s our unsung hero, because she’s so consistent with her passing.”

Frederick says the three freshmen who joined the program this year have been key additions in their ability to contribute immediately.

“Iverson plays the right side and that’s really unique for our league,” Frederick said. “She puts a lot of balls down and it’s hard for other teams to defend against her. She has a really unique swing.”

Isabella Hall and Sarah Krause are both outside hitters, and Frederick says that position brings a lot of pressure with it. “I’m so proud of how they’ve come in and embraced it, and they’ve just really rose to the challenge,” she said.

Mali Hall is in the unique position of being the only senior on the squad, but it’s a role she embraces.

“It’s definitely exciting, but it’s also nerve-wracking,” she said. “I think It’s cool because I get to share experiences that I’ve never experienced before with all these girls. They play well together. It’s kind of cool to realize this team could stay together after I’m gone as well.”

After graduation next spring, Mali Hall plans to study engineering at Idaho State and watch her sister continue her volleyball career at Grace.

Attending school, competing in athletics and working in a small school like Grace all have their advantages — and their challenges. One challenge is just finding enough bodies to have a productive practice.

“We get pretty creative with it,” said Frederick. “We do a lot of small group drills. We also have teachers who come in who have experience and play, and we have our manager, Jason Samuelson. He is a player for a boys team, and he also helps keep our gym competitive.”

Fredrick came to Grace after coaching at Highland High School. She wasn’t sure what to expect from the smaller school and student body, but the Grace athletes have been extremely competitive. “There is some great volleyball going on in our league,” Frederick said. “These kids are smaller physically, but they’re still very aggressive.”

Mali Hall, who has been attending Grace Lutheran since she was in kindergarten, says there are times when she longs for more classmates for events like school dances. (The Royals just celebrated their homecoming last weekend). “But it’s a good program — and I love this school to death,” she said.

The smaller student body offers more opportunities to compete in varsity sports. As Hess, who also coaches the boys basketball team, points out, at larger schools the competition for a spot on varsity teams is much more cutthroat. Then there is also the wider range of opportunities that come with attending a smaller school.

“We have athletics here, but they can also act in some of our one-act drama productions,” Hess said. “They can do a lot of different things. Just like the small class size, you have teams where you can get some individual coaching and just opportunities. At a big school, there are only so many kids that can play on the basketball team. Right now, there is a lot of opportunity for kids here, so it’s great.”

The undefeated Royals volleyball team, meanwhile, is bringing a lot more attention to Grace Lutheran High School as a whole, and to its athletic program.

“It’s great publicity for the school and it’s getting some attention, both individually and for the team,” said Hess. “It’s great that people know that we’re here — it’s kind of putting us on the map.”

Frederick and Hess are both hoping the success of the varsity volleyball team is paving the way for more participation from the Grace student body down the line.

“I think we’re probably influencing a lot of the middle schoolers,” said Moretti, the junior libero. “They’re probably wanting to come and play with us. I think they’re excited.”