GLENS FALLS — The year 2010 has been a year of milestones for girls volleyball head coach Darin Kennedy and the Falconer Lady Golden Falcons.

First it was a Section VI title, then it was a Far West Regional title. There was only one more title left to be achieved and the search for that fortune ended fortuitously on Sunday when the Lady Golden Falcons were crowned Class C state champs.

There was no way Kennedy was letting that state plaque out of his sight either.

“I just knew the girls could do it,” Kennedy said. “We had this goal in August, (but) there were times we weren’t playing as a team. Then about a month ago, it started coming together as a team, we got in the playoffs and we only dropped one set to LeRoy.”

Once the Lady Golden Falcons made it to the state semifinals, the rest was history.

“I said once we got out of the section — because I know how tough Section VI is — I think we could come here, battle and represent the section proudly.”

Falconer did just that.

Falconer won with game scores of 25-22, 18-25, 25-20 and 25-16 over Voorheesville of Section II.

“This is unbelievable,” senior outside hitter Ashley Gunnell said. “We’re really excited, especially for our coach. We said after yesterday that we have to make the commitment for everyone. We need to come out strong and we said we are going to win our first game.”

A shaky start during Saturday’s pool play almost spelled the doom of the Lady Golden Falcons. After a 2-2 start, Falconer rebounded with two straight wins to make the finals and when the finals started on Sunday, the Section VI squad picked up right where it left off.

“We knew Voorheesville is a strong team,” Kennedy said. “Yesterday it took a little help from the volleyball gods knowing they needed to sweep last year’s Class D champion Thomas A. Edison and when that happened, it opened the door for us at 4-2, and we couldn’t look back.”

The Lady Golden Falcons came out on Sunday in attack mode and never let up. They coupled the strong attack with good defense and the wins started piling up easily.

Cherise Gunnell had 42 assists, three digs, six aces and two kills for Falconer while Ashley Gunnell had seven digs and 20 kills; Corri Hannon had 12 digs and 12 kills; and sophomore Shannon Gunnell had her best game of the weekend with 16 digs, 12 kills, four blocks and two aces.

With five seniors who see plenty of time on the court, it was two sophomores who helped put the Lady Golden Falcons over the top on Sunday.

“Shannon played really well,” Kennedy said. “Without her we wouldn’t have been able to keep their middles honest. They couldn’t key on our outsides all the time and they were starting to do that. I think my libero (Makalia Haveron) played pretty well. She had big passes at times when we needed them and I put her out there when we were struggling. I am really proud of her as well.”

Like vintage Falconer volleyball, in the end it was too much offense, too much attacking and too much outside hitting. Throw in great defense and the Lady Golden Falcons had one heck of a winning formula in place.

“That was the goal,” Kennedy said. “We were just trying to play tenacious floor defense. There’s a drill we do in practice that they love and I told them this is their last chance to do that drill all together. Play it like you love that drill. They dug up a lot of stuff and made the passes happen.”

The Lady Golden Falcons became state champions on Sunday, but they weren’t the lone representatives from Section VI to complete the dream.

Eden in Class B and Randolph in Class D accomplished the same goal at the Civic Center, helping Section VI volleyball put its own stamp of aptitude on the NYSPHSAA volleyball tournament.

“Section VI wins three out of the five (classes) and we knew that was a goal coming in,” Kennedy said. “We knew Section VI was tough. We made it to the finals nine times and lost seven times to Eden and twice to City Honors. We know Section VI has good volleyball and that just makes up better prepared for states.”

Falconer was definitely prepared and Voorheesville was the unfortunate victim on Sunday. Game one and game two were close, but Hannon and Ashley Gunnell led the Falconer offense to two wire-to-wire wins in games three and four.

Falconer led by as much as 13-5 in game three.