BUFFALO TWP — Freeport senior Kaiti Pullano barely can remember the last time she and the Yellowjackets varsity volleyball team lost a regular-season match.

She doesn't plan on remembering any time soon.

"We haven't lost (a match) since our freshman year," Pullano said. "Oh, yeah, it motivates us. We're going to keep it going."

Freeport is 53-3 in the last three-plus seasons. The only three losses have come in the playoffs. It's regular-season record is even more astonishing 102-1.

Last season, the Yellowjackets got all the way to the PIAA Girls Volleyball Championships.

Four seniors from that team — Carlie Bieranowski, Madison Rotto, Ashley Massart and Alyssa Vigliotti — graduated and many outside Freeport concluded that this could be a rebuilding year for the Yellowjackets.

Freeport hasn't gotten that memo.

"The great thing about this team is everyone says, 'You guys aren't on top anymore,'" said Freeport assistant volleyball coach Natalie Pollino. "'You guys lost your four seniors.' This varsity team is as strong as any varsity team that has come through here in he past three years. They're phenomenal."

Freeport has been able to stay nearly unbeatable because of a secret weapon that isn't such a secret anymore: a summer sand volleyball league.

Yellowjackets head volleyball coach Tom Phillips is involved with the Big Valley Volleyball organization near Freeport.

There are three sand volleyball courts at the complex and Phillips puts his high school team through their paces in the sand once a week throughout the summer.

The benefits have been staggering.

The seniors on this Freeport team have been playing in the sand since the seventh grade.

"If you can jump in sand, you can jump anywhere," said senior middle hitter Laura Prunty. "Sand is the toughest thing to jump in. After you play a summer in the sand, it feels like you can float in the gym."

With the added resistance the sand provides, coupled with higher nets and fewer players on the court, the summer conditioning program leads to quicker reflexes in the fall.

When Phillips took over the program 10 years ago, one of the first things he did was get his players in the sand.

"I knew the sand conditioning was something that would really help a lot," Phillips said.

It has not only helped physically, but also with the much-needed intangibles. Phillips and his team use the word "mesh" a lot. Playing together in the summer helps the team mesh.

"We're lucky to have it," said senior middle hitter Rachel Grubbs. "What we have learned is teamwork and attitude. If you don't have the right attitude, you will fall apart."

Falling apart has been foreign to the Yellowjackets, even as teams have focused on beating them the last three years with little success.

"You want teams to circle you on their schedule," Phillips said. "Now you have to fight off the competition because everyone wants to beat you. If they lose all their games, but beat you, it's a successful season for them."

With great success comes pressure. Well, not with this group, Prunty said.

"We went through it last year," Prunty said. "We had four seniors, but three of us back this year were starters and we feel like we can do it again. It's not pressure because we're seniors, we're the leaders. We have to be role models for the younger ones."

Phillips said this team may be stronger athletically than last year.

"Defensively," Phillips said, "I know we're stronger."

Senior setter Anna Christy, who said the summer conditioning program, which also includes seven-mile runs two days a week in addition to the sand volleyball, makes graduation losses moot.

It also makes losses in general obsolete, it seems, in Freeport.

"There are high expectations and every year there is a new group that comes in," said Christy. "People leave. We just keep filling their shoes."