Veteran Rams roll in district opener
Rio Rancho gets past Atrisco Heritage in 3 sets
If it seems as though things have been quiet with the Rio Rancho High School volleyball program in recent years, you’d be right to think that.
For this storied program, it has been unusually quiet.
Longtime Rams coach Toby Manzanares knows it, too.
But perhaps this is the season Rio Rancho rejoins the preferred party guest list.
“With seven seniors and seven juniors, we’ve kind of waited until we had some maturity, some experience,” Manzanares said. “You can’t rush things. You can’t rush maturity. You can’t rush time.”
The Rams on Tuesday night went into Atrisco Heritage and thrashed the Jaguars in a District 1-5A opener. The scores were 25-15, 25-23, 25-14.
Rio Rancho (9-4 with a pair of losses to undefeated La Cueva) hasn’t won state since 2009. While it was in the state final in 2014, losing to Cibola, that was followed up by two consecutive years of missing the playoffs, and then a quarterfinal loss last November.
But the Rams, who will have to deal with powers Volcano Vista and Cibola in their district over the next month, showed off their strong form Tuesday in sweeping the Jaguars (7-3).
Freshman Dylan Brewer had a teambest 14 kills and senior Cerion Mosley 12 kills.
“We have a really good system,” said Mosley. “I think the main thing is we have to stay together as a team and we have to stay positive.”
Rio Rancho had but one brief moment of anxiety in this match, when Atrisco Heritage went on a 6-1 run late in the second set to tie that game at 22-all.
But Dannika Trujillo delivered an ace for Rio Rancho, and Brooke Barbour a kill from the middle moments later to close out that set.
Setter Hayley Wondra had 34 assists in the match, which lasted barely an hour.
“Hayley has been doing absolutely amazing,” said Mosley. “Her options are just great, and we’re starting to use our back-row hitters this year.”
Said Manzanares: “Hayley as a senior setter is golden. She distributes from antenna to antenna.”
Barbour finished with nine kills Tuesday, and Arianna Sanchez recorded a dozen digs. Sanchez’s serving also was a huge factor in the third and final set, with a pair of aces during one 6-0 stretch for the Rams.
The Rams placed third at their tournament last weekend, beating Cleveland in the third-place match. St. Pius beat Piedra Vista in the final. Piedra Vista beat Rio Rancho in five sets in the semifinals.