Published 10/30/08
The Española Valley High School volleyball team finally found the will to win, battling the Taos Tigers tooth and nail for a third District 2AAAA victory Oct. 22 in Española.
The Sundevils fought back from an 18-11 deficit in the fourth game and survived a match point to prevail 27-25 and force a fifth game.
In that decisive fifth game, the Sundevils jumped out to an 8-2 lead and held off the Tigers for a 15-10 win.
“There were a lot of points during the match where they could have given up, and in the past they would have,” Española coach Garry Maskaly said. “Tonight, they didn’t.”
The entire night was a battle. The Sundevils lost the first game 22-25, but only after fighting off two critical game points. Española took an early lead in the second game, despite playing without hitter Madlyn Romero, who had injured her leg the previous week. But Taos came back to take a 19-17 lead.
With sophomore Karli Salazar serving, the Sundevils rattled off five straight points behind the hitting of Veronica Quintana and Renee Roybal. Taos answered with four consecutive points to tie the score, but Española escaped another defeat when Roybal slammed down a kill with Española leading 25-24.
In the third game, Taos trailed 20-21 but scored five straight points to win 25-21.
When the Sundevils fell behind 18-11 in the fourth game, it looked like they were going down to defeat. But a block at the net by Rachel Romero breathed new life into her teammates, and Española rallied.
Behind a nice service run by libero Maria Serna, the Sundevils tied the score at 20-20 and then leapt ahead with a kill by Sabrina Duran.
“Sabrina did a great job filling in on the outside for Maddy (Romero),” Maskaly said.
The Tigers came back to lead 23-21, but the momentum shifted yet again when a Taos point was declared invalid. The Sundevils scored on the replay and then Rachel Sandoval delivered an ace. Consecutive kills by Quintana and Roybal finished the job.
In the fifth game, the Tigers seemed tired and the Sundevils were energized. Española held on and won the match, improving to 3-3 in district play and 5-13 overall.
“They’re starting to believe in each other,” Maskaly said. “That’s something you can’t practice.”
The Sundevils face Los Alamos Wednesday (10/29). Maskaly was an assistant with the Hilltoppers last season. In the first meeting between the two teams, Española won the first game but dropped the next three.
“We hit better than they did and blocked better than they did, but we had problems receiving serve,” Maskaly said.
“That’s what we’ll work on.”