Top-seeded Demons extend season with victory over Clovis
Top-seeded Santa Fe High defeats Clovis in four sets, will face Rio Rancho rival for third time this season
The last time Santa Fe High’s volleyball team took the floor during the regular season, emotion and pure energy carried the Demons to a landmark win over district rival Cleveland.
Tuesday night’s match against visiting Clovis had a much different feel — but a very similar result. Minus the excitement of the Cleveland win, the Demons (9-1) rolled past Clovis in four sets to open play in the Class 5A state tournament, taking a 25-17, 26-24, 21-25, 25-15 decision to extend their season.
The top seed in the playoffs, Santa Fe advances to Thursday’s semifinals against — Cleveland.
The match will be at 6 p.m. in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium, making it the third meeting between the teams in as many weeks.
“For three weeks, the only thing we thought about was beating Cleveland just because they’re the team that knocked us out of [the] state [tournament] last year,” said Demons outside hitter Isabella Melton.
Cleveland kept its season alive Tuesday by beating previously unbeaten Piedra Vista in five sets.
The other final four matchup will have No. 3 La Cueva traveling to Las Cruces to face No. 2 Centennial. Both teams have lost just two sets all season and each enters the semifinals as the last remaining unbeatens in 5A.
As for Santa Fe, playing as the No. 1 seed comes with more pressure than trying to preserve a perfect record.
“We came into this with all the expectations and everyone looking at us because we were the top team,” said Santa Fe High coach Josie Adams. “There’s a certain amount of pressure with that, you know? The team, though, it handled it the way I thought it would.”
If Tuesday’s match could be described in one word, it would be businesslike. The Demons didn’t rely on emotion to carry them through tough times, like when the Wildcats pushed them to the brink in the second set and then got the win in the third.
The players were more calculated than in previous matches, more aware of the bigger picture, such are the haunts of playing with a giant target on their backs.
“We’re just keeping it together and, yeah, we’re excited to be in this tournament but we have a job to do,” said senior Sydney Pino-Pacheco. “We know where we’re going. We all thought we were going to be a four or five [seed], but when they named us the top team, we knew we had to prove ourselves against all the great teams out there.”
The Demons were never seriously threatened in Tuesday’s match, although Clovis did more than hold its own for a while. Every big shot by Santa Fe’s ferocious front row of Laila
Bernardino, Jorja Chambers, Pino-Pacheco and Melton was answered by one from the Wildcats (8-5).
“I mean, they’re a good team because when you get down to the last eight teams in the state, there are no easy opponents left,” Adams said. “They’re here for a reason, just like we are.”
The Demons were methodical in clinching the fourth set, starting with a 6-1 run that was, essentially, the knockout blow. It began with Bernardino making a great back-row save on a lined shot toward a corner, a save that led to a point. It snowballed from there and allowed the crowd to get into it.
It’s been Santa Fe’s crowds that have been one of the team’s constants all season. The Demons’ home match against Capital just two weeks ago was the first indoor sporting event with fans in Santa Fe in more than a year, and the three additional matches they’ve had in Toby Roybal since then have only gotten bigger and more intense.
Thursday’s date with Cleveland will be the final time anyone gets to see the Demons in person this season — win or lose. That’s because all state championship matches will be held in The Pit in Albuquerque. Because Bernalillo County is still in yellow status according to the state’s color-coded scheme to gauge health concerns during the pandemic, it means no fans can attend indoor sporting events there.
Santa Fe County’s status as turquoise meant fans could attend games.
“It’s so sad to think we’ll be alone in there without our fans there to watch, but we do have to get there first,” Melton said.
The Demons split the regular-season series with Cleveland, losing in five sets in Rio Rancho after taking a 2-0 lead, then clinched the district with a decisive 3-1 win March 23 in Santa Fe.
“We know all about Cleveland,” Adams said. “We’ve seen them enough in person to know everything we have to, but we’ve also gone over a lot — a lot — of tape on them. And we’ll study more film getting ready for them.”
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We know all about Cleveland. We’ve seen them enough in person to know everything we have to.” Santa Fe High coach Josie Adams