Elkettes sweep Lady Hilltoppers
A battle for the top spot in District 2-4A volleyball wasn’t much of one after all.
Pojoaque Valley traveled to Los Alamos for a matchup between two undefeated district teams, but the Elkettes returned with a convincing 25-12, 25-19, 25-14 sweep of the Lady Hilltoppers on Tuesday night in Griffith Gymnasium. They also remained undefeated in 2-4A at 4-0 and notched their 14th consecutive win to improve to 15-1.
Once again, Pojoaque’s vaunted service game did its job, keeping Los Alamos (8-8 overall, 3-1 in 2-5A) off balance and forcing error after error. That libero Alyssa Rodriguez had just six digs was the biggest indicator of the Lady Hilltoppers’ offensive struggles.
“Los Alamos was out of system a lot,” Pojoaque head coach Joe Rodriguez said. “So, they were giving us a lot of free balls. It was nice since we knew they had big hitters and big blockers.”
The only thing Rodriguez could criticize were the three service errors that came on Elkettes’ first serve in Game 3.
“It was neat to see almost a complete game, but I’m still upset with those missed serves,” Rodriguez said. “We would have been out of there a half-hour earlier.”
Pojoaque begins its second go-round with district foes Tuesday at Española Valley.
ESPAÑOLA VALLEY 3, TAOS 1
Take away Game 2 of a 25-12, 25-27, 25-21, 25-16 victory over the Lady Tigers in a 2-4A match Edward Medina Gymnasium and Lady Sundevils head coach Damon Salazar would have been happier. It was Game 2, though, that troubled him. “We missed a serve or two, and then we started lifting up our shoulders and not playing to the end of points,” Salazar said. “And [Taos] played hard, dug some balls and made us make some mistakes.”
Española (10-5, 2-2) also struggled to slow down Taos’ 6-foot outside hitter Faith Powell, who had 10 service points and eight kills in that game. Still, one player wasn’t enough to overcome the Española duo of Dulce Maldonado and Chloe Fell. Maldonado had 26 kills, while Fell added 16 and served seven aces.
Meranda Romero had 23 digs and two aces, while Anita DeAguero recorded 29 assists and a pair of aces, too.
SANTA FE HIGH 3, ABQ. RIO GRANDE 0
The Demonettes worked on their middles in a 25-11, 25-10, 25-13 sweep of the Lady Ravens in a 5-5A Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium.
Ainsley Reynolds-Smith had 12 kills, while Jorja Chambers added 11 as Santa Fe High head coach Josie Adams said she wanted to prepare her middle hitters for the tough grind ahead to finish out the season — specifically a district match against Albuquerque Sandia on Oct. 23.
“We focused on activating our middles a lot, to prepare us for what’s coming,” Adams said. “They did great and did what we wanted them to do to.”
MONTE DEL SOL 3, TIERRA ENCANTADA 0
The Lady Dragons continued their domination of the Lady Alacranes in a 25-20, 25-23, 25-20 2-2A sweep at Institute of American Indian Arts Wellness Center.
Once again, their passing helped get their offense going. Emi Fukuda had eight kills and dished out 12 assists, while Jamie Lujan had six kills and nine assists. Monte del Sol head coach Chela Butler said the passing from her back row has improved to the point where the offense is performing better.
“They’re doing a really good job of getting the ball to our setters,” Butler said. “They may not be perfect passes, but their able to get the ball to our hitters and give us opportunities.
Even more impressive was the strong serving Monte del Sol (4-10, 2-0) demonstrated for much of the night. Fukuda had 19 service points, while Alexa Erives added 10 from the service line.
BOYS SOCCER ABQ. SANDIA PREP 3, SANTA FE PREP 0
The Blue Griffins are showing they can compete against the better teams in 2-1A/3A. They tied the Sundevils at 1-all and 2-all in the first half before the home team pulled away in a cloudy, blustery Albuquerque.
Goals from Alexander Horvath and Alex Mazur helped Prep (2-12, 1-7) keep pace, which is a credit to the Blue Griffins’ defensive performance.
“Now, we’re starting to get possession in the attacking half,” Prep head coach Hersch Wilson said. “That was something we were not able to do for the first half of the season. That’s all because of the boys. They’ve been working hard in practice.”