The Pojoaque Elkettes and Escalante Lady Lobos are both into their playoff volleyball fields, looking to make a deep run into state.
Escalante earned the No. 5 seed in 2A, and will start their run by facing No. 12 Mora. They beat Mora twice in the regular season, both in straight sets.
“They’re excited,” said Escalante coach Kathleen Salazar-Valdez. “They’re ready to get to Albuquerque and play.”
Pojoaque, in 4A, is also the No. 5 seed. They play No. 12 Santa Teresa in the first round of the double-elimination tournament. According to the New Mexico Activities Association, there was a four-way tie for the No. 2-5 seeds.
“A lot of these girls played last year, so I don’t think the environment should be an issue,” said Pojoaque coach Joe Rodriguez.
The state tournament plays Thursday through Saturday in Rio Rancho, with the Rio Rancho Events Center the main site with some early-round matches at nearby high schools.
Last year, the first-round play-in matches were held at host schools. This year, all are in Rio Rancho (and fully double elimination), which Salazar-Valdez said helps with their schedule and is easier to manage.
Pojoaque finished the season at 17-3, including their first win over Los Alamos (the No. 6 seed) since 2018, and won the district championship.
Their first-round opponent Desert Warriors had a bit of a down year by program standards at 10-12, but enter the tournament on a five-match win streak.
Last year, Pojoaque was the No. 5 seed, and won their first two matches, including an upset of No. 4 Gallup to reach the quarterfinals, before falling to the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in straight sets.
Escalante went undefeated in their district for the second-straight year under coach Kathleen Salazar-Valdez, and went 20-2 in the regular season.
Despite losing a big group of seniors, they hardly lost a step from last year, when they went 21-5. As the No. 6 seed, they won their play-in match in five sets over Cloudcroft, lost in four sets to Laguna-Acoma, beat Tatum in five sets, then lost a five-set thriller to Capitan to fall short of the semifinals. They, and Capitan, were the only two teams to take a set off of eventual champion Laguna-Acoma during the tournament.
Should Escalante get past Mora, their next match will be a rematch with Capitan, who earned a first-round bye as the No. 4 seed. Salazar-Valdez said the coaching staff has begun some preparations for facing the Tigers, but she wants the team focused entirely on Mora for now.
Salazar-Valdez said they need to continue to play a fast-paced game, and focus on communication in the back row. She said she plans to tweak the rotations, keeping defensive players in the back row.
“We finally started playing some good volleyball,” Salazar-Valdez said. “We started running our own system. We started running our own tempo. And they started feeling as a team.”