Published 10/23/08
The Pojoaque Elks defeated St. Michaels Oct. 16 to improve to 5-0 in district play, but coach Brian Ainsworth knew that a tougher match lay ahead. Two days later, Pojoaque traveled to Las Vegas to take on the Robertson Cardinals in a rematch.
Pojoaque’s first match against Robertson had been at home, and still the Cardinals took the Elkettes to five games before falling 3-2.
“Against Robertson, we’ll have to go on the road,” Pojoaque coach Brian Ainsworth said before the match. “We’ll have to challenge them at home.”
The rematch proved just as exciting as the teams’ first meeting, with Pojoaque prevailing 3-2 to improve to 6-0 in District 2AAA.
After winning the first two games 25-23, 25-22, the Elkettes lost two before coming back to win the decisive fifth game.
“In the third and fourth games, Robertson got on a roll and we couldn’t stop them,” Ainsworth said. “To our credit, we came back.”
Pojoaque led 12-11 in the fifth game when a Cardinal hitting error gave the Elkettes a 13-11 lead. The score was 14-12 and Pojoaque had match point, but a service error gave Robertson the serve at 14-13.
On the next point, Pojoaque’s Dionna Montoya slammed down a cross-court kill to give the Elkettes the victory.
“It was pretty intense,” Ainsworth said. “It all came down to who made the first mistake.” In its earlier match against St. Michaels, Pojoaque nearly lost the first game when it fell behind 20-16. But the Elkettes rallied to take a 25-23 win.
In the second game, the Elkettes dominated with pinpoint serving that exploited weaknesses in the Horsemen defense. They also depended on the hitting of junior Dionna Montoya, who had five kills, including the game winner.
“We dominated in game two,” Ainsworth said. “We lost our focus and became one-dimensional in the third game. If you do that against a good team like St. Mike’s, you’ll lose and we did.”
In that game, the normally accurate passing that fuels Pojoaque’s offense was absent. St. Michaels took a 4-3 lead and never trailed again. The Elkettes were going exclusively to the outside, and that allowed St. Michaels’ hitters to concentrate their blocking and dominate the net.
Pojoaque took back control in the fourth game, putting together an 8-1 run.
“We were in total control of the game, then we lost focus and became one-dimensional again,” Ainsworth said.
St. Michaels came surging back after a kill by Maya Cordova. The score was 22-21 when a hit by Pojoaque’s Kira Trujillo was ruled out of bounds. Despite strong protests by Ainsworth, his assistant coaches and the line judge, St. Michaels was awarded the point and led 23-21.
A kill by Montoya, who racked up a team-high 19 kills during the match, gave the Elkettes the serve as they trailed 23-22. Montoya promptly served up an ace to tie the score.
“We wanted to serve them tough all night,” Ainsworth said.
The Horsemen sent a free ball across the net that allowed Pojoaque’s Marissa Romero to set up outside hitter Janelle Roybal. Roybal slightly mistimed her hit, but the ball fell for a point to give Pojoaque a chance at match point.
The same scenario unfolded on the next point, only this time Roybal timed her swing perfectly and slammed the ball down for her 12th and final kill. Pojoaque won the match 3-1, improving to 13-2 on the season.
“One thing I’m proud of is when the game got to 20 (points), we were able to move to another level,” Ainsworth said.
The Elkettes take on Santa Fe Indian School Thursday in Pojoaque. All proceeds of the game will be donated to breast cancer awareness, and the players and coaches will wear pink.