Los Alamos ends Española’s season
Bottom seed in District 2-5A Tournament rallies after loss in first game
ESPAÑOLA — Sometimes, you have to learn how to lose in order to learn how to win.
For the Los Alamos Lady Hilltoppers, the 2017 volleyball season has been a frustrating exercise in trying to learn from their losses so that they could succeed later in the season. When Los Alamos opened with a loss in Game 1 of its District 2-5A quarterfinal match at Española Valley in Edward Medina Gymnasium, head coach Diana Stokes started to fidget on the bench, wondering if her team would finally learn its lesson.
“One of my famous sayings to these girls is, ‘You have to learn how to lose to learn how to win,’ ” Stokes said. “They’ve had a hard time after losing a game to bounce back from it. That’s what we’ve been working on, and now they’re starting to get it.”
She spoke with the relief and the growing confidence of a coach who saw her team, the fifth and final seed for the tournament, rebound from that tough start to beat the Lady Sundevils 23-25, 28-26, 25-23, 25-12 and advance to the district semifinal at No. 2 Capital on Thursday.
Stokes heads into that match believing the Lady Hilltoppers (7-15) might have turned a corner at the right time, and it might be enough to get her team to the Class 5A State Tournament. To do that, though, they have to win the district tournament.
It just looks more plausible after sweeping the fourth seed, Albuquerque Del Norte, on Monday and Española a day later.
“I’m hoping they believe they can [beat Capital and top seed Albuquerque Academy],” Stokes said. “That’s just the whole thing. We have to adjust our defense against Capital because it’s different. It’s just quicker.”
The defense showed it could adapt to the situation at hand, as it slowed down the Lady Sundevils’ attack over the final 2½ games. Los Alamos blew a 17-9 lead in Game 1 as Española outside hitters Dulce Maldonado and Chloe Fell hammered away at the middle of the court to fuel an 11-2 spurt to give their team a 20-19 edge it never lost.
Momentum stayed with the Lady Sundevils (7-13) through the first half of the next game, as they built a 14-10 lead. Then, Anita DeAguero sailed a serve into the net. It was the beginning of their unravelling.
Los Alamos adjusted its defense to take away the open spaces in the middle of the court, and Maldonado and Fell failed to make their own adjustments. Maldonado finished with 14 kills and Fell added 13, but they combined for just nine over the last two games.
Española head coach Damon Salazar admitted the Lady Sundevils never really fixed the problems they had — namely a penchant for errors — at the beginning of the season. He said the team’s work ethic was not as strong as it has been in past years, which frustrated him to no end.
“We never figured ourselves, we never figured out our game,” Salazar said. “It was a lot of little things at practice where we had some kids who didn’t take things as seriously as they should. We had other kids who would pout when we got on them, and we just had a lot of nonproductive time. So, when you have that non-productive time, it’s hard to get better during the season.”
The Lady Hilltoppers defense was stellar, as Sophia Salazar had a team-high 22 digs, and Kyla Sandoval added 21. Deserae Martinez added 13 and Gracie Swensen had 19.
Still, Los Alamos needed rallies in Games 2 and 3 to swing momentum back to its side. Española had a chance to close out Game 2, leading 25-24 and 26-25. DeAguero was called for a net violation on the first game point, then Natalie Gallegos hammered a kill that just kissed the end line to tie it at 26-all.
Gallegos had 13 kills, which was second to teammate Sophia Salazar with 19.
In Game 3, Española used an 8-1 run to take a 23-20 lead, but Los Alamos scored the last five points thanks to three Lady Sundevils errors to win it. The Lady Hilltoppers raced out to a 9-3 lead and never looked back in the final game.
The Demonettes were tentative at all the wrong times, and the Lady Wildcats ended their season with a 25-13, 25-19, 24-26, 26-24 win in Rock Staubus Gymnasium in the opening round of the District 2-6A Tournament.
That quality doomed Santa Fe High (9-12) in the first two games before snapping out of it in Game 3. However, Clovis got a break late in Game 4, as officials ruled that a Romp kill attempt hit the antenna with the score tied at 24-all. The Lady Wildcats closed out the match on the next point.
“Unless we were powering the hits, Clovis was there to dig up everything we nonaggressively hit at them,” Demonettes head coach Sam Estrada said.
Salome Romp had 24 kills and 11 digs, while Adonica Baca-Martinez added 13 and 11, respectively. Ciara Morgan, replacing an injured Ysabella Trujillo, dished out 40 assists. Adrianna Catanach led Santa Fe High with 16 digs.