Two Rio Arriba County volleyball teams ended up in the same pool play group, Sept. 22, at the Santa Fe Indian School “Dig Pink” volleyball tournament.
The Dulce High School and McCurdy Charter School volleyball teams duked it out for a spot in the gold bracket in the tournament, and a chance to win the title.
Only one of the two teams made it into the most prestigious bracket in the tournament, and that was McCurdy.
The Lady Bobcats rocketed to a dominating performance of pool play in a group that held Dulce, Desert Academy, Cobre High School and Mora High School.
In the pool play round, games consisted of two sets and ties were a possibility if teams split the sets.
McCurdy got off to a rocky start, dropping their first game to Desert Academy in two sets, but they clawed back to win six of the eight pool games.
In the second pool play game of the tournament, the Lady Bobcats faced off against Mora, who had recently split sets with Dulce.
McCurdy had little trouble dominating from the floor. Middle hitter Destiny Peabody came up with two consecutive, momentum-killing blocks for the Lady Bobcats, demoralizing Mora early in the first game.
Outside hitters Maria DeVargas and Devyn Cordova capitalized on their positive force in the middle, and finished strongly from the edges of the court.
McCurdy won the first set, 25-19, and the second by the greater margin of 25-12.
After finishing eight of these pool play games with a record of 6-2, the Lady Bobcats won their group and carried themselves to the gold bracket of the playoffs, which was double-elimination, full matches.
Estancia High School sent McCurdy packing in the second game of the playoff bracket.
After the Lady Bobcats won the first set of the game, Estancia claimed the last three.
Before the Estancia game, McCurdy lost three consecutive sets to Santa Fe Indian School, losing the last two sets by a margin of six and seven points, respectively.
“Against Estancia, they (the Lady Bobcats) were tired,” McCurdy head coach Roberto DeVargas said. “That was already our 14th set of the tournament and they were still diving for balls, they were still hustling and battling.”
Overall, Roberto DeVargas was content with the way his team performed over the weekend, and said he already sees improvement across-the-board from his players.
On the other side of the pool play group, Dulce head coach Kathleen Salazar-Valdez was disappointed in an underwhelming performance from her usually-strong team.
Dulce made it into the copper bracket of the playoff round, after a slow start in pool play.
Against Mora, whom McCurdy handily beat, the Lady Hawks failed to make a serious impact. They won the first set 25-16, but slacked in the second, losing 25-23. That level of play came to define the group pool play period.
“I’m disappointed,” Salazar-Valdez said. “We took Navajo Prep, who is a 4A, and has been a powerhouse for a long time. We beat them back-to-back before coming into this tournament. And you know, how we’re playing, I’m not happy.”
The Lady Hawks have a record of 6-2, and having competed against schools much bigger in size than the 3A school, Salazar-Valdez hoped that they merely had an off day on the court.
Earlier this month, they went to the Piedra Vista High School volleyball tournament in Farmington, and made it to the silver playoff bracket out of pool play.
They lost against Bloomfield High School before taking a win to Navajo Prep. Middle hitter Caitlin Duncan made the All-Tournament team, which Salazar-Valdez said she has never had a player achieve in the last five years.
“We went to Piedra Vista and we played awesome,” she said. “We beat Aztec. We beat Navajo Prep. We split with Kirtland Central. I’m just really disappointed in how they’re playing and I’m trying to figure out what I can do differently.”