Volleyball: Elkettes hold off Piedra Vista for tourney title

By Pancho Morris | The New Mexican

9/20/2008

Pojoaque Valley High School lost its first game of the 2008 volleyball season Saturday night.

And its second.

But the Elkettes remained undefeated, rallying for a 31-29, 19-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-12 victory over Piedra Vista to successfully defend their championship at the Tournament of Champions in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium.

Pojoaque improves to 7-0. Piedra Vista dips to 7-2.

The Elkettes scored five of the first six points in Game 5. They widened the gap to 8-3, 10-5 and 12-7. Twice the Lady Panthers closed to a pair of points, including 14-12 after back-to-back kills from Rachael Beaty, a 6-foot-1 middle hitter.

But Janelle Roybal answered with a kill through the block that ignited a celebration that was two hours in the making.

"We found what we needed to find," Brian Ainsworth, Pojoaque Valley head coach, said.

What the Elkettes lost was the ability to minimize their mistakes. They had six errors in Game 1, 12 in Game 2 and 13 in Game 3. They committed seven errors in Game 4 and only one in the finale.

Coincidence?

Ainsworth thinks not.

"We stopped making errors," Ainsworth answered, when asked how the Elkettes turned around the match. "It really came down to errors. I felt like we beat ourselves in those two games."

That wasn't all.

Pojoaque Valley picked up five points off the serve in Game 5.

"Their serve receive gave us lots of opportunities and we finally took advantage of them," Ainsworth said.

The Elkettes also kept Beaty from completely dominating the net.

"She's awesome," Ainsworth said of Beaty, who managed just three kills in the fifth.

Miquella Lovato, all 5-feet-4 of her, loomed large.

Lovato never shied from a Beaty blast and had more digs than Beaty had kills for the match. She also received most serves, which put setter Marissa Romero in an enviable position of finding Roybal, Dionna Montoya, Ellen Cruz, Kira Trujillo and Leandra Martinez.

"Is there anyone better?" Ainsworth asked, referring to Lovato's back-row prowess.

There wasn't over the past two days.

"She is just so much fun to watch, so much fun to watch," Ainsworth said.

Piedra Vista wasn't the lone test the Elkettes passed on the way to the title. In Saturday morning's semifinal, Pojoaque Valley swept Las Vegas Robertson 26-24, 25-22, 25-23.

The Lady Panthers advanced with a 25-21, 25-22, 25-20 victory over Clovis in their semifinal.