A Dream You Have Will Come True — Fortune Cookie

RIO RANCHO — So it was written, so it came true.

Dionna Montoya and Kira Trujillo couldn't believe their eyes Friday night.

At the conclusion of a team dinner at Pei Wei, on the eve of the championship match of the Class AAA State Volleyball Tournament, the Elkettes of Pojoaque Valley High School broke into their fortune cookies.

The message inside Montoya's and Trujillo's was identical.

"It was like, 'Oh my God! It's meant to be,' " Trujillo said.

"We couldn't believe it," Montoya said.

Miquella Lovato still can't.

"It feels like it hasn't happened," Lovato said.

It happened, Miquella.

So it was written, so it came true.

The Elkettes are the 2009 state champions. They have the banner and the trophy to prove it. It was presented after a 25-23, 14-25, 25-8, 25-20 victory over the Lady Rams of Portales on Saturday in the Santa Ana Star Center.

It is the second time the Elkettes (23-1) have worn the state crown. The first occurred in 2006. Each team had Brian Ainsworth as its head coach.

"Both are special," Ainsworth said. "But this is the best team I've ever coached and I want to emphasize team."

There are standouts. Earlier this season, Ainsworth said — on the record — that Montoya, Trujillo, Lovato and Marissa Romero were the best players he ever coached at their respective positions.

But, with the Elkettes locked arm-in-arm, Ainsworth told the team what they already knew from three months of pouring buckets of sweat daily.

"We would not have won this had everybody not stepped up," Ainsworth said.

It wasn't just the gospel according to Brian, either.

Late in the second game, Cara Salazar, a key server and passer, injured her left arm in a collision and did not return.

That forced Kiana Vigil to move from the outside, where she guards against tips, to the middle to serve receive.

"She hadn't serve received a lot, but she's worked hard every day in practice to perfect it," Ainsworth said. "She came in and got the job done."

Vigil wasn't the lone Elkette to step forward and stand out in her own way.

Erin Lucero, a 4-foot-10 junior, was called upon for back row duty, while Amber Lovato contributed from the service line and Kyra Gonzalez brought quality to the net.

"It's been like that all season," Montoya said. "They push us and we push them."

So it was written, so it came true.

Montoya is one of four seniors. Miquella Lovato, Romero and Trujillo are more than classmates and teammates.

"There are so many things I can say about them," Montoya said. "They are amazing girls. There's just so much faith in all of us."

Their desire, dedication and determination are givens.

Still.

Montoya came up hobbling in the second game.

"I asked her if she needed to come out," Ainsworth said of his outside hitter, who was involved in a serious car accident at the beginning of the season.

"She said, 'I will finish!' Dionna has such a huge heart and she's such a huge competitor."

Romero is the brains. That's what a head coach wants in a setter.

"I'm so proud of the distribution of Mari," Ainsworth said. "She got the ball to the rest of our hitters to allow Dionna a chance to recover. I don't know if anyone has worked as hard as Mari over the past couple years."

Montoya's right foot hurt on take-offs and landings. Her defense was it's usual sterling self.

"That's because you play defense on your toes," Montoya said with a smile.

Only in the second game, when the Elkettes committed 13 errors, was the defense not equal to Jenna Wagner, Portales' standout middle hitter, and Macy Mitchell, the Lady Rams' other notable hitter.

With the match squared in games, Ainsworth turned to humor.

"I told them, 'We scored 38 points. I didn't think it was possible to score more than 25 points a game, but we scored 38,' " he said. "I can talk to this team that way. That's another thing that makes them so special."

Ainsworth was counting his points and the points he felt his team gave to the Lady Rams. Besides, he delivered the message he wanted his Elkettes to absorb with the score 21-11.

It came during a timeout.

"I told them, 'We're going to lose this game. But let's play as hard as we can to get the momentum for the third game. And if you use that momentum at the start of the third game, you'll be state champions.' "

Ainsworth doesn't lie to his Elkettes. It rubs some people the wrong way. Not the Elkettes.

"Honestly? We weren't worried," Miquella Lovato said of dropping the second game. "We knew we were going to get the job done."

So it was spoken, so it came true.

Pojoaque Valley untied a 6-6 knot with eight straight points in the pivotal third game. Liz Gomez, arguably the best junior middle hitter in AAA, started run with a pair of block kills and a kill. After Portales setter Megan Chambers was whistled for a double-hit, Tamarra Vigil, Gomez and Lindsay Longacre recorded successive kills.

A 14-7 advantage was stretched to 19-7 with Longacre scoring from the weak side and Trujillo using the block for back-to-back kills.

Ainsworth calls Trujillo, the 5-10 middle hitter, the smartest hitter in the state.

"That's because I can't hit the ball that hard," Trujillo joked.

Kim Velasquez is the other reason.

"Coach always called Kim the smartest hitter he's ever coached," Trujillo said. "I grew up wanting to be exactly like her."

Well, she went Velasquez one better.

The state title was Trujillo's second, even though the lore in "The Valley" is that Miquella Lovato is the lone link that binds 2006 and 2009.

"I was on the bench," Trujillo said, pointing to the last chair. "I was literally the 12th person."

Has any player grown more than Trujillo?

Not Miquella. (OK. That's a joke about her listed height of 5-3.)

Lovato must be doing something right. Actually, she does a lot right. If she didn't, The University of New Mexico wouldn't be giving the libero scholarship money to come and be its defensive specialist for them next season.

Lovato wasn't looking ahead. She was savoring the moment for as long as she could.

"Portales is an awesome team," she said. "But we have more components."

And one intangible.

"We've have gotten so close," Romero said. "It's incredible how close we are. It's been so much fun.

"We knew Portales was going to come at us. But we worked so hard this season and we wanted it so bad. We knew this was our last match together and that made the difference. We didn't have a tomorrow."

But they'll always have Friday.

And Saturday.

It wasn't by accident that the Elkettes ate at Pei Wei.

"I took them there on purpose," Ainsworth said. "We needed to get away and I took a chance that every kid would get something positive in their fortune cookie. They did."

Trujillo and Montoya carried theirs into their final high school match, each wearing it close to their hearts.

"How are you going to write that?" Trujillo joked, after turning her back, reaching inside her jersey and showing the remains of a sweat-soaked message,

It wasn't just fortune cookies.

On their drive to Rio Rancho, the Elkettes drove through the rain and stopped by to wish the Pojoaque Valley football team best of luck in its first-round playoff game at Albuquerque Academy.

Once they were within sight of Santa Ana, one ray of sunshine broke through the clouds and illuminated their bus.

"The sun is shining on us," Ainsworth said to his Elkettes. "This is going to be special."

How special?

Try dream come true special.

So it was written, so it will be forever true.