Who?

Forgive St. Michael's junior middle hitter Alexa Chavez if she didn't know who Ashley Sorensen was. But Capital High's 6-foot middle blocker was just another in a line of big bodies Chavez and the Lady Horsemen volleyball team have seen already.

So when St. Michael's head coach Chela Butler told Chavez to work the ball around Sorensen during a timeout in the fifth game of the nondistrict match Wednesday, Chavez responded with, "Who?"

Sorensen didn't make a peep as the Lady Horsemen scored three of the final four points to secure a 25-21, 18-25, 19-25, 25-21, 15-9 win in Capital's Edward A. Ortiz Memorial Gymnasium.

Chavez's curious reply might be ingrained in a nondistrict schedule that already tested St. Michael's, and all the thanks can go to the Clovis Invitational, where it went 2-1. After spending last weekend facing the best from West Texas, Arizona and a few of the top teams in New Mexico, the Lady Horsemen (3-1) didn't fizzle against the Lady Jaguars' front line.

"We saw Division-I players in Clovis," Butler said. "Denver City from Texas has a player that's being recruited by the University of Nebraska. We've got Albuquerque Academy there, and they've got three
6-footers. Texico's a tiny little team, and they play big.

"Even though you don't play against all of them, you see them and you're watching them play. And I keep telling my girls, 'You can do that.' "

The advantage of playing those teams revealed itself after Capital took a 20-16 lead in Game 4.

The Lady Jaguars (1-1) were a confident bunch — unlike the listless group that couldn't keep up against Pojoaque Valley last week — and were about to close out the match with a roar.

Even in the face of imminent demise, St. Michael's battled back with a 9-1 rally to force a fifth game. Monique Romero said the Lady Horsemen found inspiration in Capital's good fortune up to that point.

"While we were walking back (from a St. Michael's timeout at 20-16), Capital was really excited," junior outside hitter Monique Romero said. "So that got us mad, and we came out there and played tough."

Especially Chavez, a 6-1 junior who only turned 16 last month. She hammered three of her 11 kills over the final four points of the game.

Her swagger wasn't just discovered in Clovis — she's been a varsity player in volleyball (as well as basketball) since she was a freshman. She also played on the varsity for softball in the spring.

"It's that sophomore year of being on three varsity teams creates a world of confidence," Butler said.

Her teammates, though, already have three tough matches under their belt, and their composure showed.

The Game 4 comeback inspired an 8-2 run in the final game as Capital wilted under the pressure.

Stephanie Oellien mishit three kill attempts during the run, and Janeth Santos and Rocio Archuleta sailed serves into the net.

"They let pressure start creeping in, and they got a little complacent, thinking, 'It's there. It's in the bag,' " Capital head coach Natalie Garcia said. "Then the errors just start to build, the unforced errors, and that's exactly right. They need to learn to finish."

Capital learned to play with better intensity for most of the match.

Archuleta had 11 kills through the first four games, and Oellien added nine more. Still, the sign of what was the come was displayed in Game 2, as St. Michael's cut a 20-8 deficit to 23-18 before the Lady Jaguars righted themselves.

"We were up ridiculously, but we let them creep back," Garcia said. "Close enough that, if they got on fire, that could have changed the game. They need to learn to take it and run with it."

The Lady Jaguars needed only to look across the net to understand what Garcia was talking about.

Contact James Barron at 986-3045 or jbarron@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at thereadbarron.com.