Capital falls in first round; St. Michael’s, SFIS win, will face off in quarterfinals
Mistake-prone Lady Jaguars play ‘not to lose,’ get swept by Kirtland Central
After four years of building the volleyball program back to respectability, all the Capital Lady Jaguars wanted was one more day to play. The six seniors who dotted the Lady Jaguars roster endured the losing that results in just seven wins over three years before finally cashing in on the hard work of rebuilding. On Thursday, they were rewarded with the bright lights and white-hot spotlight that was the Class 5A State Tournament.
Unfortunately, Capital seemed starstruck playing in the Santa Ana Star Center. Uncharacteristic errors and a hit-and-mostly-miss offense doomed the Lady Jaguars to a firstround exit after Kirtland Central handled them in three sets, 25-21, 25-19, 25-20, on Thursday afternoon. The Lady Broncos, the eighth seed in the tournament, will take on No. 2 Artesia in a quarterfinal at 9:45 a.m. Friday.
Capital, meanwhile, got a taste of success — albeit brief. But the seniors were thankful they got the chance to end their careers in an arena rather than a gymnasium.
“As freshmen, we were like, ‘Oh we’re going to change this,’ ” senior middle hitter Ishara Sorensen said. “We’re not going to let the drama and the little things get to us. That was the downfall of our other teams — it started from the inside and worked its way out.”
Little things have been the key to the Lady Jaguars’ turnaround — from not letting hits find the floor, to transitioning from defense to offense faster than opponents expect and serving tough. However, they couldn’t mask the inconsistent hitting that plagued Capital from the moment it hit the court for pool play at 8 a.m.
Playing in a pool with No. 3 Los Lunas and No. 6 Albuquerque Academy, the 10th-seeded Lady Jaguars (11-12) never scored more than 19 points in any game, relegating them to third place in Pool C. Max Vargas, Capital head coach, said his team never got over the wonder of being at state tournament.
“The whole atmosphere, none of the girls expected that,” Vargas said. “We didn’t step it up and we had a
lot of hitting errors. We couldn’t put the ball down.”
“For me personally, I didn’t wake up early enough, that’s not literally,” Sorensen said. “I wasn’t there [mentally] until the end. So, I got a wake-up call, but it was too late.”
The dysfunctional hitting continued against the Lady Broncos. After Capital took a 14-12 lead in Game 1 when Kirtland Central middle hitter Nia Nelson sailed her hit wide, the Lady Broncos reeled off six straight points that sapped the Lady Jaguars of their enthusiasm and energy.
The only offense Kirtland Central (14-8) mustered in that stretch was a Gabrianna White-David kill and a Talia Ockerman block. Otherwise, Capital mishit balls, overpassed on defense or simply couldn’t get into any sets and had to pass the ball over to Kirtland Central.
“We play not to lose, rather than to win,” junior libero Makayla Baca said. “Nobody realized it could be their last game today. Until it was too late.”
That came in Game 3, as the Lady Broncos simply let Capital make error after error to take an early 5-0 lead. Then came the most consistent stretch the Lady Jaguars mustered all day. Jennifer Pearce and Sofia Garcia each had a kill during a 5-0 run that brought Capital to 8-all.
Sorensen and Garcia had three kills each in Game 3, and when Garcia pounded a hit off the Lady Broncos block, Capital had hope and an 18-15 lead. But a persistent problem returned at exactly the wrong time. The Lady Jaguars became timid at the net and sloppy with their passing, and Kirtland Central took advantage to procure a 6-0 run that was capped by Nelson’s kill down the line for a 21-18 lead.
“We were playing our game, and then, suddenly, we played not to lose,” Vargas said, reiterating his libero’s sentiment. “We need to play to win. It’s what we’ve done all year. We start making a bunch of points and we get it close, then we start tipping, and roll shotting, and then we make bad decisions.”
As bad of a day as it was for Capital, Vargas wouldn’t let it overshadow the silver lining he and his coaching staff built over the past four years.
“You know what? At least we got to make it here,” Vargas said. “They got to experience it. I got to experience it. I had never been here before. So, we’re going to try and keep it going and make it here as many times as we can.”
Still, one more day would have been nice.
“For me personally, I didn’t wake up early enough, that’s not literally. I wasn’t there [mentally] until the end. So, I got a wake-up call, but it was too late.” Ishara Sorensen, Jaguars senior middle hitter