Coming off a strong season during which the Northern New Mexico College women’s basketball team went 19-11, the Lady Eagles have undergone some big changes.
Former NNMC assistant coach Mandy Montoya returns as head coach after a number of years successfully running the Peñasco program, where she helped the Lady Panthers win their first state championship.
And the team is moving into the California-Pacific Conference, where it was picked third in the coaches’ poll in the six-team division.
The good news for Montoya is that while the team does not return any of its starters from last season, eight of the 11 players on the roster are Lady Eagles veterans.
“I think it’s a pretty versatile group,” she said. “We have a lot of kids who can make plays. We’re really quick and athletic. We’re wanting to push the ball and be up and down. It’s what Northern New Mexico is known for, our up-and-down style and our team fits that style of play.”
Montoya makes no qualifications about what she thinks her squad can do.
“I think our expectations are that we want to go win it all,” she said. “In the past couple of years, we’ve been right there in the Continental League. Granted, this is a whole new conference, but I don’t think anything changes. Our eyes are always set on let’s go win a conference championship.”
That’s the attitude the team has embraced, as well.
“I think the expectations that everybody has is to get to the championship,” senior point guard Paulina Lopez (5’3”) said. “Some others are to be better every single game that we play and little by little, get together by working hard every practice just so we can have a good season overall and try to give everything of us every game.”
Senior post Jayden “J.J.” Jenkins (5’7”), a Robertson grad who averaged 7.5 points and 4.2 rebounds last season, said holding the trophy at the end is the true goal.
“Of course to win the championship,” she said of the team’s goals. “Besides that, our goal is to improve every game and notice a change in our improvement from where we started and where we finish and hope it’s a successful end.”
The two are the core of the starting five, Montoya said.
“She’s super athletic,” she said of Jenkins. “She can run the floor, has great post up moves and can hit midrange jumpers. She runs the floor really well.”
And Lopez runs the shows offensively, Montoya said.
“A tremendous floor general,” she said. “One of the things I told her is she has to be the biggest extension of me on the floor. She does such a great job of having everyone’s respect on the floor. She knows the offense like the back of her hand. She knows where everybody supposed is to be and in putting people in the right spots.”
Lopez’s younger sister, Romina Lopez (5’7”) also is joining the starting line-up.
“Explosive,” Montoya said in describing the younger sister. “Her first step, she’s pretty much at the rim at will. In practice, she’s really learned to handle the ball.”
Another Robertson alum, sophomore MistiDawn Roybal (5’10”), steps in at forward after transferring from New Mexico Highlands.
“She’s athletic and she has five state championships in high school in various sports,” Montoya said. “She’s going to bring high energy. She’s really competitive and gets on the floor for loose balls. She plays a hard-nosed style.”
And finishing up the starting five is local freshman GG Romero (5’8”) out of Pojoaque Valley, who carried the Elkettes into the state tournament last season.
“She’s done a really good job of shooting the ball from the perimeter,” Montoya said. “She can score in bunches so that helps. When you have three guards on the perimeter and J.J. in the middle, it puts a lot of pressure on teams.”