A year ago, the Pojoaque Valley High School volleyball program’s years-long dominance of Santa Fe Indian School came to a crashing halt.
On Sept. 6, the Elkettes made sure everyone understood that that result was more aberration than a trend as Pojoaque rolled in Santa Fe to sweep the host Lady Braves 3-0 (25-12, 25-11, 32-30) in a match that highlighted the factors behind the team’s 2-1 start to this season.
“They were up for today after the Robertson loss (Sept. 4) and they realized every point counts, every side out,” Pojoaque head coach Joe Rodriguez said. “The defense played great and they were being patient. We are getting better every week and I am happy with that.”
Pojoaque was led by Espy Torres (14 kills), Camille Cordova (eight kills, 24 digs), Ashten Martinez (seven kills, 4.5 total blocks), Adrianna Quintana (32 assists, 28 digs) and Alyssa Rodriguez (25 digs).
Despite the win, Rodriguez wants to see his team’s passing improve.
“It’s a work in progress, he said. “We have a few girls who can consistently pass it to the tape. Even our hitters, when they pass, they have to get involved in that. Indian School is a little slower, so we have to dictate the pace right away and not get caught into their system.”
The Elkettes will get a chance to test their defense and ability to stay in system against some bigger hitting and faster tempo squads on Sept. 14-15 at the Santa Fe Tournament of Champions at Capital High School.
“We are in a pool with Robertson, St. Michael’s and Piedra Vista, so I just want to see us compete and have fun,” Rodriguez said. “If we finish first or fourth, it doesn’t matter. It’s about progression. The girls are loving it this season: There is no bickering and no drama.”
Pojoaque took on Valencia High School on Tuesday, but the results were not available at Press time.
The Elkettes started the new campaign with a solid sweep of the defending Class 3A state champions Sandia Prep (28-26, 25-21, 29-27) and followed that up with the aforementioned defeat at Robertson 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-12, 25-22).
“The majority of the (sets) have been 25-22, 25-21 so we are being tested and that’s good,” Rodriguez said. “We are not freaking out and are picking ourselves up on and off the court. We just need to learn to finish the right away. Against Sandia Prep, we actually had 9-point leads in a couple of the (sets) and ended up winning by three or four.”
Rodriguez thinks his girls need to develop better killer instinct and the coaches need to evaluate how best to put their players in the best positions to maximize their abilities.
In the first set of the win at the Indian School, the Elkettes made a move early and illustrated what spectators would grow familiar with on the night as Pojoaque’s block was superior to the Indian School’s and thanks to having a defense that was able to read the deliberate approach of the Lady Braves’ setter, were able to transition into their own attack thanks to a fantastic defensive effort all night.
The Elkettes’ back line, time and time again, kept up plenty of balls off of the Lady Braves’ attack to keep on the front foot and their hosts playing on the defensive most of the evening.
They moved out to a 9-4 lead and continued to roll from there.
“It really helped when our blockers were reading them too and overall we read them really well,” Adrianna Quintana said. “We were playing one step ahead and with heart overall.”
The second set was a little less aesthetic early on, but the Elkettes’ went on another run early in the set to lead 14-5 and used that early momentum to cruise to a 2-0 set lead.
Then the third set provided the drama.
The Lady Braves led 9-0 out of the gate behind some of their trademark, scrappy play combined with Pojoaque coming out a bit sluggish.
“In the beginning, that was not how we play, we were too confident in the beginning,” Torres said. “Toward the end, we were like, ‘We need to start putting some balls down.’”
“At that point last year, we would have shut down,” Quintana said, who added that the team’s improved unity and superior conditioning to the opposition have played a big role so far in the early stages of the current campaign.
Ultimately, after a big rally win in the 11th point of the set, the Elkettes got their groove back and tied things at 12-12 thanks to some big serves by Martinez and some big hitting by Torres.
Both teams then began a set of ultimate see-saw play, going back and forth amidst a mix of great and bad defensive plays and superb and head-scratching attacking shared between the squads.
Yet, during the fray, the Elkettes remained calm and continued on, before finally holding off their hosts in the final set when Alicia Quintana capped off a memorable rally consisting of a good 20 volleys with a kill to end the night.
“We just wanted to win it,” Torres said. “It’s our coach motivating us and pushing us.”
Rodriguez said that his team’s dominance in the middle and he and his girls’ belief in dominating that area of the net played a big part in the win.
“We had a lot of touches and even when we play teams with taller kids, we will still run middle, we just have to be quicker and smarter,” Rodriguez said.
It paid off against the Lady Braves in a crazy finish that could have seen the night go longer if not for Rodriguez’s squad finding a way to avert disaster.
“That was great; we could have said we had a 2-1 lead and go into the fourth, but no, we finished,” he said.
Pojoaque’s biggest turnaround came in the serving category — the Elkettes committed 15 services errors against Robertson — where they had just three all night against the Lady Braves.