Waldorf stumbles, but beats Desert Academy

The Santa Fe Waldorf Lady Wolves were sluggish and they were error prone. But they also were victorious in the end, as they outlasted Desert Academy 20-25, 25-13, 22-25, 25-11, 15-9 in a nondistrict volleyball match in Larson Gymnasium on the New Mexico School for the Deaf campus. The tempo of the match was slow, and it seemed to infect both sides with lackluster play at times.

That almost cost Waldorf (5-1) in Game 5, as it came off a strong win in Game 4 to fall behind 3-0 right off the bat.

“I was going to wait till it was 5-nothing, but I figured I better call it at 3[-nothing],” Waldorf head coach Ian Longacre said. “Then we caught them and passed them. They did really well serving and we just woke up. It took a long time to wake up. We made a lot of errors in the first couple of games.”

Many of those mistakes came in the back row, as Longacre continued to emphasize that the passing needs to improve. Still, Faith Lopez had one of her better defensive performances with 14 digs, and Martine Perez had four blocks at the net. Rose Moon did what she usually does, collecting 25 kills, while Brianna Poole added six and Nicoya Dant four.

Moon also had three aces, which was second best on the night to Dant’s five.

Desert Academy, in its season opener, fell to 0-1 on the season.

ST. MICHAEL’S 3, ABQ. HOPE CHRISTIAN 0

The Lady Horsemen played big when they needed to, and continued an impressive 5-1 start to the season with a sweep of the Lady Huskies, 25-14, 25-14, 25-18 in Perez-Shelley Gymnasium. The key to success fo St. Michael’s starts up front.

“Our front row played excellent,” Lady Horsemen head coach Valeria Sandoval wrote in an email. “Great blocks and lots of touches to slow the ball down for our back row.”

The front row also did its part on the offensive end, as senior Sierra Moya had a team-high 10 kills, while Miquela Martinez added nine, Mikayla Bohlman eight and Joelyn Fernandez six. Darian Ortiz had 16 assists to lead the offensive attack.

St. Michael’s will try to keep its hot streak going against Los Alamos on Thursday.

ABQ. BOSQUE SCHOOL 3, SANTA FE PREP 2

On a night for five-game matches, the Blue Griffins struggled at times and ultimately left Albuquerque on the wrong side of a 15-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-15, 15-13 score.

The difference was in aggression: When Prep attacked, it controlled Games 1 and 3. When it didn’t, the Lady Bobcats (5-1) took advantage of the moment. It didn’t help that the Blue Griffins (2-1) lacked junior Daisy Cunningham, who missed the match because of an illness.

“We made a few lineup changes and we got into a few rotations where we got hurt,” Prep head coach Kiran Bhakta said. “They just got to know their roles and do smart things. Overall, the level of effort in regards to how hard they played, a coach can’t be more impressed with what they bring to the table.”

Selma Flint had six kills and five blocks, and India Cunningham had five kills and three blocks as Prep was strong at the net. Indian Cunningham also had three aces, which trailed Julie Brock by one for team high. Samantha Wilson had six kills, 15 assists and three aces.

In the junior varsity match, Bosque School won 25-9, 25-16.

ESPAÑOLA VALLEY 3, BELEN 2

The toughest opponent for the Lady Sundevils were the Lady Sundevils.

Of the Lady Eagles’ 100 points scored in a 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 25-21, 15-12 Española win on the road, Lady Sundevils head coach Damon Salazar calculated that 68 of them came from his own team’s errors.

“We just made everything more difficult,” Salazar said. “We made passing errors, we had a lot of overpassing. I mean, they served good, but those are serves we should handle. We had 41 kills and 28 attacking errors. We had 12 service errors and 12 serve-receive errors. We were just giving them points.”

Despite those problems, Española enough things well to improve to 1-1 on the season. Autumn Martinez had 11 kills, while Dulce Maldonado managed 10 in just four games after sitting out Game 1. Chloe Fell recorded four aces.

BOYS SOCCER CAPITAL 7, GRANTS 0

Undefeated, unscored upon and ranked No. 1 in Class 5A, according to MaxPreps.com’s Freeman rankings. What could be better than that? How about a pair of goals for Jordan Pacheco on his birthday? He did that against the Pirates, and tied Daniel Garcia for match-high scoring honors at Jaguar Field. The Jaguars (5-0-1) take their scoreless streak to Rio Rancho on Wednesday as they take on the Rams.

SOCORRO 3, ST. MICHAEL’S 1

The momentum from winning Taos’ Sangre de Cristo Classic over the weekend was fleeting.

A pair of goals from Zedekiah Ochoa helped the host Warriors (4-3) take a 2-1 lead midway through the second half and hold on for the win. St. Michael’s (2-3-1) tied the score at 1-all on Esteban Rigales’ goal off an assist from Wesley Graham in the 50th minute, but Ochoa responded eight minutes later with his second goal.

“We had a post-tournament letdown,” St. Michael’s head coach Mike Feldewert said. “Hopefully, we learn from this and turn around and get ready for Bosque [School, on Sept. 14].”