Hard-hitting Demonettes overwhelm Lady Sundevils
Every Batman needs a Robin. At Santa Fe High, Salome Romp needs Adonica Baca-Martinez.
Most volleyball teams knew how to beat the Santa Fe High Demonettes last year — neutralize Romp, their powerful 5-foot-8 outside hitter. Stopping two hitters, though, is harder to do.
The Española Valley Lady Sundevils learned the struggles of trying to do that in the latter stages of their nondistrict match with the Demonettes on Wednesday, a 25-20, 25-22, 25-16 sweep for host Santa Fe High in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium. A match that started off sloppy on both sides of the net finished with a flurry of activity for Santa Fe High.
Baca-Martinez supplied much of the action, mainly in the form of thunderous hits from her right arm that sounded eerily similar to Romp. She finished with nine kills, which was second-best behind Romp’s 12, but Baca-Martinez is more of a threat at the net than last year.
“She’s gotten better in a short amount of time,” Santa Fe High head coach Sam Estrada said. “Just from last week to this week, it was amazing. The confidence is back, and that’s what we need.”
Last week saw Baca-Martinez struggle in the glare of an intracity battle with Capital on Aug. 30. She managed seven kills, but she had 11 hitting errors that negated her productivity. Baca-Martinez only
managed three against Española, and she attributed her night-and-day performance to the jitters that come with a rivalry match.
“We all were just waiting for that [match] for so long,” Baca-Martinez said. “Then it came, and we just weren’t there.”
A week of working on her timing with setter Ysabella Trujillo paid off in the last two games against the Lady Sundevils(1-2). Baca-Martinez had four kills in Game 2, including one down the left sideline that gave the Demonettes (2-1) a 23-22 lead. Baca-Martinez also had a pair of crucial kills in Game 1 that handed Santa Fe High leads of 17-16 and 19-18, with the latter starting a four-point run that the Lady Sundevils could not counter.
Baca-Martinez said she got lost in the moment of those two hits, as the adrenaline rush kicked in from the roar of the crowd and her teammates.
“It’s all a blur from there,” Baca-Martinez said. “The feeling’s indescribable.”
In Game 3, her cross-court kill gave Santa Fe High an almost insurmountable 11-3 lead as a perplexed Española squad appeared on the verge of imploding. The Lady Sundevils struggled with errors in a fivegame win at Belen on Tuesday, handing the Lady Eagles 68 points on Española’s own mistakes.
Against the Demonettes, Lady Sundevils head coach Damon Salazar said the total was 52 errors in just three games.
“We played OK,” Salazar said “Even when we were making errors, we were OK. The first
two games, those were aggressive errors. The last game, we were unfocused when we started the game. We gave up four points just like that because people didn’t know where they went. They were acting like we were changing the world, and we’re not.”
As for Baca-Martinez, the start of the season has been the
reward for the hard work she put during the offseason. Splitting time between volleyball and basketball, she focused on her hitting and put in countless hours refining her technique and playing with the team at camps.
“In June, she gave us a lot of time,” Estrada said. “She played summer league and she helped with our camps. She put in time, and it’s showing.”
Not to be forgotten was the play of Trujillo, who had 24 assists on the night and ran the offense almost perfectly in Game 3 as five players recorded at least one kills. Trujillo’s final assist went to sophomore middle hitter Ainsley Reynolds-Smith, who finished with three kills and a block.
“The rhythm between the setter and the hitters was there,” Estrada said. “I think it’s the talking l the communication is helping. I think that was our goal. Last week, there wasn’t any talking in the front or in the back.”
Maybe talk now will shift from a one-hitter attack to an offense that has a sidekick or two.
BOYS SOCCER POJOAQUE VALLEY 6, DESERT ACADEMY 2
It was opening day jitters for the young Wildcats, who have 10 eighth-graders on the squad. The more veteran Elks (only three eighth-graders) pounced on that combination to take a 6-0 lead before Desert Academy could settle down.
When they did, the Wildcats (0-1) scored twice, including one from eighth grader Cyrus Curtis.
Desert Academy also welcomed the addition of Natalie Longmire, who played with the girls varsity team but it disbanded this season because of a lack of players.
“There was a bunch of changes with the team this year,” Wildcats head coach Rob Lochner said. “We were rusty in the beginning. We had a bunch of shots — about the same amount as Pojoaque — but we weren’t scoring.”
Pojoaque improved to 1-2 on the season.