With the District 2-4A championship on the line, it was the Los Alamos Lady Hilltoppers who prevailed with a 3-2 (21-25, 27-25, 25-23, 12-25, 15-9) win Nov. 1 inside Ben Luján Gymnasium at Pojoaque Valley High School.
The Elkettes (17-3) had protected their home court the entire season, but the heavy hitting and big block of Los Alamos (12-8) gave the Lady Hilltoppers the edge in the end — and the right to host the District tournament championship Saturday.
“This is just one step of the journey,” Pojoaque head coach Joe Rodriguez said. “We’re preparing more than likely for Española. Moriarty might do something, but we’re preparing for Española and that’s our achilles heel for some reason.”
With the loss to Los Alamos, the Elkettes will await the winner of Moriarty and Española, played Tuesday at the Lady Sundevils’ home court, but those results were not available by press time.
Pojoaque will host the matchup 6 p.m., Thursday (11/8) and the winner will travel to Los Alamos for the championship match.
The Lady Sundevils were the only other squad to take Pojoaque past four sets all season, and also the only other opponent to defeat them inside the District with their 3-0 sweep Oct. 18 at Española.
Neither Rodriguez or his players were discouraged at the sight of seeing the Lady Hilltoppers handed the District championship trophy and celebrating on the floor of their gym.
“I feel like it gives us motivation to work harder,” setter Adrianna Quintana said. “I know for me and a few of the girls I’ve talked to so far, it gives us motivation to come back and outwork everyone. We know that this is not the end. As a senior, I’m getting close to the end, but we know that this loss happens for a reason. We’re put in these situations for a reason and to work 10 times harder the next week, next game and every day after that.”
Their performance was hardly anything to be discouraged about, as the five-set match was a continuous back-and-forth battle that featured runs of excellent and sub-par play by both teams.
Pojoaque’s best moments came in the fourth set victory, as the they were able to build an early 14-7 lead after a Mikayla Padilla ace, then increased the lead as large as 13 points, which was also the final margin.
Los Alamos was often on their heels and out of system; continuously diving for balls in desperate attempts to keep play alive. However, in the final stanza, the Lady Hilltoppers were able to pull away after jumping ahead 7-6.
Things started off with a long rally, won by the Los Alamos, and that proved to be the theme of the set.
Elodie Thelliez led Los Alamos with nine kills and Sophia Salazar had eight.
“When they were in system and got a good set to a good hitter, that played a huge part,” Quintana said. “We needed to pick up our speed a little bit more but I feel like when they got on their block too, it gave them more momentum than we had.”
The big middle Natalie Gallegos finished with 13 total blocks for Los Alamos, including six solo efforts.
“In our system, we were setting into the blocks, so we got to have a better read,” Rodriguez said. “We just can’t set into a girl like Natalie and expect for anything good from our middles. You’re setting up to fail.”
Serving has been among Pojoaque’s strongest assets all season — and they made just six errors on 104 attempts while recording 10 aces, but Rodriguez said the overall efficiency wasn’t where he would like it.
“Our serves were not there where I would like them to generate easy points,” he said.
With Los Alamos’ block coming alive in the second set onward, Pojoaque had a hard time generating routine points on offense, even after successful digs and sets. The change in their attacking forced 22 hitting errors to Los Alamos’ seven.
The Elkettes leader in kills for the season, Espy Torres, was pulled for sets three and four and did not see any action until midway through the fifth, as she came back onto the court and delivered an immediate kill, but Pojoaque was already too far behind for any comeback.
“Maybe I should have brought her back sooner,” Rodriguez said. “It was about the energy and Ayanna (Aguirre) brings a lot of energy and defense. Espy brings the kills, so you got to pick and choose your battles and I’ve stated before I’m more of a defense-oriented person, but maybe I got to switch gears and get the offensive (going more).”
Camille Cordova led Pojoaque with 14 kills, followed by Ashten Martinez (13) and Leah Trujillo (six). Torres, who was pulled early, finished with just three.
Alyssa Rodriguez had 46 of the team’s 146 digs and Quintana added 16 and 33 assists.