The Pojoaque Valley High School volleyball team was down two sets to none, Aug. 23, as they prepared to enter the third, make-or-break set.
Sandia Preparatory School had outmatched the Elkettes handily, taking the first set, 25-13, and the second, 25-18.
Setter Adrianna Quintana looked to the sideline and took a deep breath, slowly pushing air down with her hands and calming herself, before what would become the third and final set.
“I had nerves, I’m not going to lie,” she said.
Pojoaque finished the third set the same as the first, 25-13, losing the match after a three-set sweep.
They were unable to deal with the sheer firepower of the reigning 4A state champions.
In fact, Sandia Prep won titles in 2015 and 2016, making them back-to-back state champions.
On their path to the state championship last season, they blew through the Elkettes in the quarterfinals, beating them three sets to none.
But, Pojoaque did give them the closest match of the tournament. Sandia Prep lost one player from last year’s team.
One of the key elements of those state championship teams has been senior outside hitter Catherine Kelly.
While she may look superficially unintimidating at 5-foot-8, she is a dominating force on the outside due to the height of her jump and the power and accuracy she packs behind her hits.
Last season, as a junior, she collected a total of 301 kills over the course of the year.
Her presence gave the Pojoaque defense trouble all night, and as soon as she was set to hit, the ball was almost certain to land as a kill.
“I’ve played club all of my life, so I’ve seen hitters like that,” Pojoaque libero Analisa Lovato said of Kelly. “And I’ve seen her play before. I love playing them, for some reason.”
Pojoaque head coach Joseph Montoya found some lessons for his team to learn from Kelly’s dominant performance against the Elkettes.
“She has the confidence to go up and hit whenever she wants to,” he said. “If she misses, she misses. My girls need to get that confidence to go up and hit.”
Montoya did compliment sophomore Ashten Martinez, a powerful outside hitter. She showed considerable composure on the ball, knowing when to strike with power and when to tip and surprise the defense.
Martinez was a primary factor in the Elkettes’ ability to get ahead early on in sets.
In the first set, the Elkettes led the scoreboard until they reached nine points. At one point in the first set, they were ahead 9-5, before the Lady Sundevils were able to adjust themselves to go on an 11-point scoring streak.
Pojoaque is operating with a team that has undergone some serious restructuring since last year. They lost four seniors from last year’s team, a group which formed a major crux for the Elkettes.