Lady Horsemen are state champs in volleyball
St. Michael’s dominates Sandia Prep in all facets, securing first state title in 16 years
It was the stuff that dreams are made of — except Joelyn Fernandez didn’t know what her next step was.
It wasn’t like the St. Michael’s senior outside hitter didn’t know how championship celebrations went. She saw enough of them thanks to her dad, Horsemen head football coach Joey Fernandez, who guided three teams to titles during his 16-year career.
However, this moment belonged to his youngest daughter, but she didn’t know what to do with it. After teammate Miquela Martinez deposited another dump kill that secured the first Class 3A volleyball title in 16 years for the program by a 25-21, 19-25, 25-14, 25-17 count over Albuquerque Sandia Prep in the Santa Ana Star Center on Saturday afternoon, Joelyn Fernandez froze for a moment.
“My mind was everywhere,” Fernandez said. “The only thing I could do was go tackle [libero Darian Ortiz]. I was just so happy.”
Of course, it was a form tackle dad would have been proud of if he wasn’t coaching the football team in the 3A quarterfinals at that moment. Perhaps, it was the perfect way to end an almost perfect performance by the Lady Horsemen (23-2) on the biggest stage for prep volleyball. Facing the three-time defending state champion Lady Sundevils (20-5), St. Michael’s almost always had the right answer, and it didn’t matter whose number was called.
The Lady Horsemen were superior in every facet of the game, but their serving set the tone.
Leave it to Ortiz, the senior libero, to do that in the opening game. With the score knotted at 12-all, Ortiz stepped to the service line trying to keep her nerves calm.
“I was super nervous,” Ortiz said. “I just knew I needed to get it in. Coach [Valerie Sandoval] told me where to put it. I knew I needed to put it there and just try to do my best to get points.”
Ortiz calmed down after teammate, senior middle hitter Mikayla Bohlman, hammered a kill to the end line to break the tie. She felt a jolt of electricity when she recorded the next two serves for aces and St. Michael’s reeled off seven straight points for a 19-12 lead it never relinquished. Ortiz had 24 service points and led the way with five aces. It was only appropriate that she served the final two points of the match.
“Her serving was on fire,” said Sandoval, St. Michael’s second-year head coach. “I was calling her serves and she served on point every single time. Totally, completely amazing.”
What Ortiz started, the rest of the team followed suit, as the Lady Horsemen served so deep that the Lady Sundevils were forced to start their offense further back. That muted their attack because it often
left Sandia Prep hitters off the net when they swung, or they simply passed it back to St. Michael’s.
And the Lady Horsemen feasted on the amount of easy hits and free balls that came their way, especially the middle hitters. Bohlman and Barker combined for 27 kills and five blocks as they neutralized the Sandia Prep block by mostly hitting over it. The attack was varied, though, Fernandez had eight kills, which tied Martinez even though she was the setter. It was her trademark dump kills that kept the Lady Sundevils’ defense off-balance. That she capped the match with her favorite play — with the ball hitting the floor before Sandia Prep’s Maryah Burrel could dig it — was not her dream scenario.
“I didn’t want to finish it like that,” Martinez said. “I wanted to finish it with a big kill from Mik [Bohlman] or Molly [Maestas], but it happened like that. And it worked.”
For Sandoval, it was as much a dream come true for her as it was for her team. A 1996 St. Michael’s graduate, Sandoval had never gotten this far as a player or coach. Even though she played under head coach Chela Butler, she was not part of the 2002 championship team. By the time Sandoval joined her mentor’s staff in the early 2010s, the Lady Horsemen were lost in the afterglow of Pojoaque Valley’s dominance. It almost appeared that St. Michael’s would be eclipsed by Sandia Prep’s excellence.
“I’ve never been a state champion,” Sandoval said. “But to be able to influence 14 awesome ladies and 65 girls in my program, it is really an honor. I hope they take whatever lessons they learned this year out in life.”
Martinez also got to put her unique touch on the St. Michael’s athletic legacy. She was already a part of back-to-back championship golf teams with her mother, Robin Martinez, and older sister Jonelle Martinez played volleyball and was a part of three state championship golf teams (also coached by mom), not to mention a Mountain West Conference individual champion. Now, the Martinez family can add a volleyball trophy to it.
“My sister left a legacy in golf, and now I can leave a legacy equivalent in volleyball,” Miquela Martinez said. “It’s not necessarily a comparison, it’s just us leaving a mark on the school.”
Fernandez understands where her teammate is coming from. She just happened to merge her family legacy into one joyous moment.