No. 5 seed Escalante (20-3) surprisingly lost their first-round playoff match to No. 12 Mora (17-7) in five sets, losing three match points, to move to the elimination bracket, falling 23-25, 25-18, 27-29, 25-22, 16-14 at Cleveland High School on Thursday morning.
“We came out very flat,” Escalante coach Kathleen Salazar-Valdez said. “We came out not aggressive, we came out not talking.”
In two regular season meetings, the Lady Lobos won in straight sets and allowed just 13.5 points per set on average. But Mora had a seemingly different energy for their playoff matchup.
“I had told the girls, the state tournament is another postseason,” Salazar-Valdez said. “Our record didn’t matter. I’m not surprised. I’m surprised that we didn’t fight as hard as we usually do.”
Mora senior Sierra Velarde was often too much for Escalante to handle, with a number of blocks and kills.
Emma Maestas recorded 41 assists in the five sets, including 14 in the third set but just four in the second. Brycelyn Martinez had 20 kills.
Both teams went back-and-forth throughout the first set, with Escalante taking a 17-13 lead but giving it right back. Escalante nearly gave a lead back late, but finished with two points for the win. In the second set, they won the first point but then fell behind, and stayed behind, losing the set by seven.
Escalante lost a lead from 18-15 when they gave up five straight points in the third set, then from up 24-23, they lost four straight set points before finally winning 29-27.
Mora built a big lead in the fourth set, and went up 17-8, but Escalante fought back to nearly tie, but from down 23-22 they lost the next two points, and the match went to a fifth set.
Mora went up 9-6 in the fifth-set tiebreaker, but Escalante lost three straight points. They they won four in a row, lost one then won three more to lead 13-10. From up 14-11, though, they squandered three chances to win, and lost five straight points as Mora advanced.
“We don’t feel good, but we’re going to try our best to win all the other games,” Martinez said.
After the match ended just past noon, Escalante had the rest of the day to recover and prepare for the rest of the tournament. They next play against the loser of No. 6 Tularosa (17-7) and No. 3 Texico (16-7) on Friday morning at Cleveland (update: Texico beat Tularosa in four sets). They’ll play again in the afternoon if they win, and potentially a third time in the evening for a chance to reach the semifinals on Saturday at the Rio Rancho Events Center.