Keeping a high school volleyball team competitive is always a difficult task.
Some years, Española Valley High School head coach Damon Salazar might have to test young players in the back row. Other years, he will have to use an inexperienced front row.
This year, he is starting the season with an almost entirely new back row and different setters, as he lost four defensive specialists and one setter to graduation in May.
“Early in the season, we will have our problems, and we will struggle with some teams that maybe we should beat,” Salazar said.
Earlier in the summer, the Lady Sundevils had some difficulty getting the proper numbers for off-season practices.
They were not getting the dedication that Salazar wanted out of the team. But as the season has drawn nearer, he has established a committed team — especially out of the younger players upon whom he will have to rely.
Junior Meranda Romero will fill in the libero role left vacant by graduating senior Leah DeAguero. She said she has been looking forward to taking the position ever since she was named a defensive specialist in 2015.
Alyssa Aguilar and Anita DeAguero, a senior and freshman, respectively, will take over passing duties for the other seniors that left the team last year, including setter Raylynn Quintana, who made the North All-Star team based on her performances last year.
“Right now, it’s just that they need to learn how to move like a setter,” Salazar said of his new setters. “Once they get their feet in the right spot and their body in the right shape for when they need to set, it’s going to become really easy for them, because they have good hands.”
The Lady Sundevils will have a plethora of options in the middle and on the outsides.
Seniors Autumn Martinez and Cheyanne Martinez will hold the middle and the right side, then, junior Chloe Fell and sophomore Dulce Maldonado will take over the duties of outside hitter.
All four of those hitters are varsity veterans and even Maldonado, a sophomore has seen considerable playing time. The more experienced hitters are content with how their passers are progressing.
“It’s looking really great, honestly,” Cheyanne Martinez said. “Practices have been greater and I feel like we’re more of a team now. And our setters are doing so much better.”
Last season, Española won their competitive district handily, coming in above Del Norte High School, Los Alamos High School and Capital High School, all of whom had winning records in the district.
For Salazar, Los Alamos will be a big question mark, as they have an almost completely different line-up from 2016.
In their district, the Lady Sundevils fiercest competition will be Capital, who they beat on both occasions last year, but who are returning a number of good players.
“They have a great libero,” Salazar said. “They have a good setter. And they have two or three hitters. And they play with a lot of energy.”
Still, he feels that his varsity team does not have the type of energy that he demands of his usual volleyball teams.
He said when he scrimmages the junior varsity against the varsity team, the junior varsity tends to bring more than the quiet varsity.
Española will begin its season, Aug. 30, against St. Michael’s High School. They had the same start to the season last year, and ended up losing 3-0.
St. Michael’s made it to the 4A semifinals in the state tournament and all of their team will return, except for three of their star hitters.
The Lady Horsemen also have a new coach this year, Valerie Sandoval, after Josie Adams resigned in April.
“We’ve gotten a lot better since the summer, definitely,” Autumn Martinez said.
She is hoping that the work shows when they stack up against the Lady Horsemen for their first game.