Capital earns first tournament berth in 9 years
Santa Fe Prep’s strong nondistrict schedule pays off with eight seed
Max Vargas’ brow furrowed after seeing one half of the Class 5A State Volleyball Tournament field announced online on Sunday.
The Capital head coach grew concerned that his Lady Jaguars might miss the state tournament once again, extending their drought to 10 years.
Vargas finally exhaled when he saw Capital’s name appear on the computer screen as the 10th seed in the 5A bracket, playing No. 6 Albuquerque Academy and second-seeded Los Lunas in Pool C action Thursday morning in the Santa Ana Star Center. The Lady Jaguars last made the tournament in 2008, losing to Albuquerque Del Norte in the opening round.
“I was worried because I hadn’t seen our name yet, but we got it,” Vargas said. “The girls, they were super excited. They were screaming at the top of their lungs.”
After the excitement wore off, Vargas and the Lady Jaguars focused on their next task — finishing in the top two in pool play. The winner in pool play gets a bye into Friday’s quarterfinals, but Capital could move into a better portion of the bracket for Thursday’s first-round matches by finishing second.
Capital struggled in pool-play action in previous seasons, but it reached the gold bracket of all three regularseason tournaments in 2017.
“We got to take pool play seriously,” Vargas said. “In the past we never took it serious enough. It was like, ‘Oh, it’s just pool play. It doesn’t really matter.’ But it does. Every point matters.”
Santa Fe Prep only had to wait one season before making its return to the 3A tournament, and used a 13-9 record and a strong nondistrict schedule to pave the way to a berth.
Prep is the eighth seed and will play No. 1 Texico and No. 12 Capitan in Pool C at either Rio Rancho High School or Rio Rancho Cleveland High School. Pool-play schedules were not released at press time.
Still, Prep head coach Kiran Bhakta felt it was a just reward for the hard work his team put in this season.
My girls have never been shy about playing against state competition,” Bhakta said. “When we were watching the show, they were saying we had one of the toughest schedules in 3A. It just showed that playing tough teams will get us ready, and they will get us ready fro Texico and Capitan.”
Desert Academy, which won the District 3-3A tournament championship, nabbed a 10 seed and will play
Dexter and Rehoboth in Pool C.
In 4A, Las Vegas Robertson earned the second seed, in part because Portales, the third seed, lost to Moriarty in the District 4-4A final on Saturday. St. Michael’s is the fourth seed and gets the Lady Pintos and Shiprock in Pool D. Santa Fe Indian School is No. 6 and plays the Lady Rams and No. 10 Albuquerque Bosque School in Pool C.
Escalante led a trio of 5-2A teams to make the state tournament, grabbing the six seed. Questa earned the 11th seed, while district tournament champion Peñasco played its way to the 12th seed after beating the Lady Lobos in the 5-2A final on Saturday. Several Lady Panthers were a part of the Class 1A/2A cross-country championship team on Saturday morning in Rio Rancho.
Santa Fe Waldorf grabbed the No. 3 seed in 1A, and will play with fellow 1-1A foe Coronado, the six seed, in Pool C.