Lady Horsemen hitting their stride
St. Michael’s dominates ATC, 9-1
What the nondistrict schedule didn’t do for the St. Michael’s girls soccer program, the district portion did.
The Lady Horsemen hope that the rigors of being a part of the toughest district in Class 1A/3A will bear fruit next week after easily handling the Academy for Technology and the Classics 9-1 in the opening round of the smallschool state tournament at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex. The win moves sixthseeded St. Michael’s into a 1A/3A quarterfinal match against District 2-1A/3A foe and No. 3 Albuquerque Bosque School at the Bernalillo Soccer Complex on Wednesday.
In scoring their most goals since an 8-0 win over Santa Fe Indian School on Sept. 25, the Lady Horsemen showed the speed and quickstrike capability they possess. The match wasn’t 5 minutes old before they held a 2-0 lead when Frances Schneider found Rachel Morgan on a crossing pass and the sophomore slotted the shot to the goal’s lower left.
St. Michael’s (14-6-1) had already fired away five times at the ATC goal, as the Phoenix (8-71) back line was disorganized and left huge gaps in the middle of the field the Lady Horsemen consistently exploited.
It hearkened back to the nondistrict season,
To get to Las Vegas Robertson, the St. Michael’s Lady Horsemen had to take care of Santa Fe Indian School first. Even though St. Michael’s swept the Lady Braves, 25-20, 25-10, 25-16, to finish the District 2-3A volleyball season Saturday in Perez-Shelley Gymnasium, the match was not as easy as the final score indicated. Even so, the Lady Horsemen (18-2 overall, 9-1 in 2-3A) finished in a tie for first place with Robertson, meaning the two teams will hold a playoff match Monday to determine the regular-season champion and the top seed for next week’s district tournament. The two teams split their district series, with each winning on the road.
The match will very likely determine the top seed for the Class 3A State Tournament.
Valerie Sandoval, St. Michael’s head coach, said her team looked a little flat during prematch warmups, and it was Senior Night and Parents’ Night, too.
“I definitely wanted to make the day special for the parents and the seniors, and we have eight on varsity,” Sandoval said. “We just started slow. I don’t know if it was because of [the festivities], but we didn’t have a great warmup. I told the girls this match wasn’t going to be easy, because the Indian School is scrappy.”
Little did she know that SFIS hadn’t practice during the week because it was fall break at the school. Lady Braves head coach Brian Gurule was happy with the performance given the rust her players might have accumulated.
Camilla Lewis had 18 kills to lead the Lady Braves (15-5, 6-4), while her sister Leanna Lewis added seven. Marlena Yazzie had 31 assists to pace the hitting attack.
“We did well for this week, with them not being in school all week,” Gurule said. “I am proud of them. They did well.”
St. Michael’s finally got on track with its serving. Sandoval emphasized the service game all week, knowing that it will be a factor in the playoff. She even devised games during practice to bring that point home.
“We talked that you have to go back there with the same mentality,” Sandoval said. “You can’t think, ‘I hope I don’t serve it out.’ You have to go in there saying, ‘I am going to serve it in.’ I think they saw the difference of that playing that game. It opened their eyes, and because of it, we only missed two or three serves [vs. SFIS].”