BUCKEYE — Buckeye Union High School’s girls’ volleyball team looked forward to getting that first win of the season against Washington High School Tuesday night.

That elusive first win, however, will have to wait until further notice. 

At 6:13 p.m., the teams had three minutes left for warmups before the match began when the lights went out for a brief moment.

The scoreboard shut off as well and it never came back on.

Three of the lights came back on a minute later and the gym remained dim.

At 6:30 p.m., one of the assistant principals came back and alerted the AIA referees and the head coaches that the match will not be played. 

It was determined that it'd take six hours before power was restored. The PA announcer addressed the crowd and the match was officially canceled at 6:32 p.m. 

No one knew what caused the power outage Tuesday night and it is unknown if the match will be rescheduled to a later date.

Buckeye head coach TJ Furco and the players looked forward to Tuesday’s game and getting his team back on track after losing two tournament games and the season opener. 

Furco coached the Hawks to an 11-10 record last fall, which was their first winning season since the 2012-13 school year. The team had a number of seniors.

Now he's coaching a young team this season.

“We had a lot of seniors (last year), we had seven that graduated,” Furco said. “So we have a lot of new girls on the team this year who are just learning what the expectations are for varsity, how varsity plays, (because) it is a different speed.”

According to the roster list on AZPreps365, there are only two senior for Buckeye this season.

Furco is embracing the youth movement and he expects to see improvement as the season goes forward. 

“There has been a lot of growth from day to day, from week to week, so I expect it to only get better,” Furco said.

Furco has coached volleyball for more than a decade and has experienced good wins and tough losses. Regardless of the outcome of the game, he understands that he will be depended on as a leader.

Buckeye lost two tournament games and their season opener, and Furco is trying to put things in perspective with his young team.

“I do have a lot of young girls that are just learning that, so I know they stress out, in terms of just making mistakes,” Furco said. “My big thing is just keeping their head in the game, learn from their mistakes and then we just got to grow throughout the season.”

Buckeye looks to win their first game of the season in their next match against Kofa High School in Yuma on Thursday at 6 p.m. 

Washington High School looks to improve to 2-2 on the season in their next match at home against Youngker High School on Thursday at 6 p.m.