For an instant, Chloe Fell looked unstoppable.
The Española Valley High School outside hitter was seemingly the only player scoring for the Lady Sundevils, Aug. 30, in the second set of their first game match-up against St. Michael’s High School.
Her powerful hits were the only force on the Española side that had difficulty dealing with the wall-like blocking from St. Michael’s front row. Fell was working angles with ease and used her strength to hit the ball through the fingers of the Lady Horsemen blockers in front of her.
With the second set tied at 25 apiece, Fell used her power on the left side to put the Lady Sundevils ahead, 26-25. Then, St. Michael’s hit a ball out of bounds, giving Española a win in the second set and the match was then tied at one set for each team.
That would be the only set that the Lady Sundevils ended up winning. They slipped 25-21 in the third set, then lost the final set, 25-20. In all, they lost three sets to one.
“We need her (Fell) to be up all of the time,” Española head coach Damon Salazar said. “We need her to be consistent … She was coming through last year for sure, so she’ll get there. I have all confidence. But, right now, because the setting is different for her, they (sic) get down on themselves because they’re having to do a little bit more.”
Fell finished the game with 18 kills, seven more than her front row companions Cheyanne Martinez and Dulce Maldonado, who both had 11.
Inconsistency was a major issue for the Lady Sundevils, who had trouble establishing solid offensive moments, and often let a loss of morale get the better of them.
They kept with St. Michael’s for the first two sets, losing the first set, which went past 25 points to a score of 28-26.
For that first set, Española faltered at the end, leading into the 25-point mark, but the Lady Horsemen were clutch with a tip, block and then a commanding kill to win the set.
After the first two sets, the Lady Sundevils strained to keep up with St. Michael’s. The match ended with a missed serve from middle hitter Autumn Martinez.
This was the first game of the season for an Española team that has a number of new parts.
For the most part, the back row is made up of different starters and the team has completely new setters pulling the strings on offense.
Alyssa Aguilar and Anita DeAguero are the primary setters on the team.
They are filling in for the role that Raylynn Quintana played for the Lady Sundevils last year. DeAguero, a freshman, had 27 assists and Aguilar had 17.
“Well, we passed better than we had been, so that was good,” Salazar said. “Our setting was a little inconsistent, so I can understand that, but our hitters, they would make an error and then they were down for three or four points. We can’t afford to do that.”
For Salazar, the player of the game was libero Meranda Romero, a junior who is new to the position.
She had 50 digs in the four sets and Salazar praised her consistency on defense.
This was Romero’s first game starting at that position for Española, as she took the special libero jersey off of the back of the graduated Leah DeAguero.
Apart from playing, Salazar is still dealing with a team that he believes is too quiet, which in turn, leads to the players lacking the necessary energy for when a game becomes tight.
“Our biggest problem is that we’re not loud enough,” he said. “It has been a consistent issue that I’ve had for four or five years. I guess I’ve got to blame myself, I don’t know. But, these kids will not yell and play loud.”
Throughout the course of the game, Salazar attempted to urge his team to scream and shout to pump up teammates, but in the end, the quiet personalities had trouble being noisy.