Pojoaque High School volleyball coach Brian Ainsworth encourages his team during matches with phrases like “Separate,” “Game to five” and “First to 20.”
In the Elkettes’ Class AAA state semifinal match against the Robertson Cardinals Nov. 14, a team responded, but it wasn’t Pojoaque.
In the fifth meeting of the season between the two teams — Pojoaque had won the first four — Robertson defeated the Elkettes 25-14, 19-25, 25-21 and 25-19 to knock them out of the tournament and advance to the Class AAA championship game Nov. 15 against Ruidoso.
“They wanted it more than we did, and it showed on the court,” Ainsworth said. “We beat ourselves. The only team that beat Pojoaque this year is Pojoaque.”
Ainsworth said he quit counting his team’s mistakes in the third game, when the total reached 30. The normally sure-passing Elkettes shanked passes and sent free balls over the net on the first hit, where Robertson’s hitters were there to put it away.
“We take pride in our passing and our passing stunk,” Ainsworth said. “When you give a team like Robertson free balls over the net, they say ‘Thank you’ and throw it down your throat.”
The Cardinals took the lead early in the first game and thoroughly dominated. The Elkettes came back in the second game and in typical Pojoaque fashion, they pulled away from an even 10-10 score to tie the match with a 25-19 victory.
It was in the third game when the Cardinals turned the tables and took control.
With the score tied at 15-15, the Cardinals won the battle to become the first team to 20 points. The Elkettes lost the next five-point fight as well, committing three errors that gave the Cardinals a 25-21 victory.
Pojoaque seemed like a beaten team at the start of the fourth game. Robertson rattled off the first five points of the game and extended their lead to 18-6 before Pojoaque fought back.
Mounting a stirring comeback, the Elkettes rallied to 20-15 with a block and a kill by Leandra Martinez. After a Robertson point, the Elkettes won the next four points and closed to within two.
“We started wanting it and didn’t want it to end,” Ainsworth said. “If we had played like that from the first point, we would have won.”
From there, a bump by Pojoaque sailed out of bounds, another overpass at the net was put down for a Robertson kill, and a Pojoaque kill attempt landed wide of the sideline. Pojoaque never returned the ball on the last point, giving the Cardinals a 25-19 victory that sent the Elkettes home.
“Pojoaque has made us a better team all year long,” Robertson coach Raynee Trujillo said. “We want to be one game better this year than we were last year.”
Robertson lost to Portales in last year’s state championship game. Ruidoso made Robertson runner-up again this year by defeating the Cardinals 3-0 in the championship game Nov. 15 in Albuquerque.
Pojoaque finished the season 19-3, suffering its second semifinal loss in the last two years. Robertson was 16-9 overall.