Lady Hawks’ first-ever championship appearance ends in sweep to Lady Wolverines
Texico head coach Kristen Scanlan, who is now a nine-time state champion as head of the program, said it’s “the fight of the Wolverines” that’s allowed her teams to continue to strive for years and years.
This time it was the height of the Lady Wolverines (19-5) that earned them their fifth consecutive state championship (15th overall) Nov. 17 over No. 5 Dulce at the Santa Ana Star Center in the Class 2A final.
The Lady Hawks (21-4) had made a magical run through the tournament and earned the school’s first-ever championship appearance, but like so many times before in history, Texico dominated in the final match, this being their seventh sweep in state championships under Scanlan.
During the 25-18, 25-22, 25-12 win, Texico’s front row was a towering obstacle, often forcing Dulce’s hitters into tip shots and off-speed attacks, rather than free, aggressive swings like they had been able to do so often on their journey in Rio Rancho to the final match.
“If you get blocked like that and you haven’t seen it, it can be intimidating,” Scanlan said. “It can really change the psyche of a hitter. We were fortunate to get our block going early and get into their heads.”
The Lady Wolverines’ Baylee Sours, Kaitlyn Roderick, Riley Thomson and others made things uncomfortable for Dulce’s main swingers in Caitlin Duncan and Jaelyn Reval, who had to think more about the placement of their attacks. Texico boasted six players 5 foot 9 or taller.
“Yeah, they were big and forced us into that,” Dulce head coach Kathy Salazar-Valdez said. “It was hard when I tried to change things up every timeout because we had something that ran so well for us (the rest of the tournament). They were tall and what could we do with that? We tried our best and that’s all I ask from these girls.”
Dulce seemed like a team that was destined for a long run when pool play began Nov. 15 at Rio Rancho High School. The Lady Hawks handled Escalante and Pecos easily in the four sets to secure a bye in the first round, then swept Mescalero Apache in the quarterfinals 3-0 (25-22, 27-25, 25-15).
“All I kept telling these girls was they were the team to beat,” Salazar-Valdez said. “I told them they were the best team and I believed it, but they had to believe it.”
Texico advanced to the final after surviving a game 1 loss to Pecos before Dulce’s match with No. 1 Mesilla Valley finished in the other semifinal.
The Lady Wolverines made their way over to court. No. 1 and grabbed a front row seat to get a look at what turned out to be one of the most exciting, thrilling and emotional matches of the entire 2A tournament, which Dulce took 3-2 (8-25, 26-24, 25-23, 20-15, 18-16).
Victory was hard to foresee after Mesilla thwarted the Lady Hawks in game 1, leading by as many as 17 points (21-4). The Lady SonBlazers jumped out to a 10-0 lead and when the set was over, waltzed to the opposite bench and had the smiles of advancement on their faces.
“After the first game, coach told us that we could still do it,” Reval said. “We fought, and she told us we were the better team. Which we were, and we proved it.”
Dulce did prove it, but it was n’t an easy adjustment to the Mesilla attack that featured deep, aggressive serving and powerful hits from senior Annika Cohn, who was such a weapon that the Lady SonBlazers would continue to set her as their main offense, even when she was positioned in the back row.
That would come back to haunt them, in the end.
The Lady Hawks started communicating and moving their feet, and their defense started to pick up balls more consistently. Setter Jasmine Salazar started finding her hitters and Dulce came back to shock Mesilla with two wins and games 2 and 3.
“To get a good set, you need a good pass,” Reval said. “We were struggling with that early and when we picked it up, we knew we had it and coach was telling us that we did all along.”
Libero Alancia Herrera started doing her part by moving and sacrificing her body to keep rallies alive, freshman Tionne Lovato picked up her play in the middle and Dulce grabbed a 10-9 lead in the fifth and final game after Kristen Manwell recorded an ace.
Later, Conn would give Mesilla a 14-12 lead after finding an open area near the sideline with a perfectly placed line shot.
It looked like the magical run could be over, but it never was for the Lady Hawks on this night.
Conn attempted to end the game on the next sequence but Reval came up with a huge block and then Caitlin Duncan absolutely hammered down a kill from the middle off a quick set by Salazar.
It was a precarious situation following, as Duncan headed back to serve and Reval was forced into the back line as the rotation shifted. The timing couldn’t have been any worse with the score knotted at 16, but it didn’t matter, because senior Brooke Vigil came up with the biggest block of the game to get Dulce to match point.
After a Lady SonBlazers timeout, the teams would rally and when Mesilla finally got into system, that’s when their strategy came back to bite them.
Jacey Coyle wanted the ball from the strong side in the front, but the Lady SonBlazers set to Conn in the back row — who perhaps with too much adrenaline — soared the ball over the net and it never stopped until it hit out of bounds, officially eliminating the No. 1 seed.
No matter how well the Lady Hawks rested or prepared afterward, there simply wasn’t anything more they could have done against Texico. Lack of communication played a big role and the endurance needed to fight through the entire three days of the tournament began to fade for Dulce.
“It was the communication,” Salazar Valdez said. “I’ve told them before it was going to be the killer of us and that was one today. I think we held up the entire week until now. There was a mental break and no coach wants that to happen and it does, but ours just happened to be in the championship game.”
Still aware of what they had accomplished was a first, most of the Dulce players still screamed, smiled and celebrated after the final handshake with the Lady Wolverines. They kept those smiles turned on when they received the runner-up red trophy and even were requested for autographs by several young girls afterward in the tunnel near one of the exits of the Star Center.
“That right there, is what made the whole week worth it,” Salazar-Valdez said.
Texico ended the year with 13 straight victories after back-to-back losses against Pojoaque Valley and Class 1A runner-up Melrose at the end of September and beginning of October.
Duncan, who is a junior and will be back as a leader next year, said there was no shame in the final result, in what truly was a magical weekend for the Dulce community, who’s contingent traveled as strong as any school, regardless of classification.
“Nobody (from Dulce) has ever done this before,” Duncan said. “We made history.”