JACONA — Kira Trujillo and Leandra Martinez are as noticeable as air.

But had it not been for the two Pojoaque Valley High School middle hitters, the Elkettes would not be breathing easy and sitting pretty after opening night of the District 2AAA volleyball season.

Martinez and Trujillo evenly divided 22 kills, as the Elkettes outlasted the Lady Cardinals of Las Vegas Robertson 19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 22-25, 15-13 Thursday night.

Even with Dionna Montoya and Janelle Roybal registering a respective 13 and 11 kills, would the Elkettes have defended Ben Lujan Gymnasium, their home court, without Trujillo and Martinez?

"No," Brian Ainsworth, Pojoaque Valley head coach, answered. "And I just told them that. Our middles outplayed their middles and that was the difference in the match.

"We were able to establish those two girls in the match and that made the difference."

Little separated Pojoaque (9-2) and ranked first in Class AAA from Robertson (6-5) and ranked third.

The difference?

Besides Martinez and Trujillo?

Two kills.

With the matched knotted at two games apiece and the score deadlocked 13-13, Ellen Cruz put Pojoaque on the threshold of victory with a kill down the line.

Montoya must have liked what she saw because on the very next point, she also went line to record the final point.

"Those were the two biggest shots," Ainsworth said of the 2-hour match.

Still, the night belonged to Trujillo and Martinez.

"I just try to hold the middle for them," Trujillo said of her role in support of the outside hitters. "I really like defense and blocking."

What she doesn't crave is attention.

"Actually, those that know the game notice it," Trujillo said of her contributions. "I don't like being in the spotlight, but it felt really good to help the team out."

Robertson was the Elkettes' fourth match this week. It showed.

"I think we were a step slow all night," Ainsworth said. "We could see that they weren't being aggressive because and they weren't using their athleticism because they were tired."

The Elkettes struggled. But, they survived.

"We've got to finish games," Ainsworth said. "After we dropped the first game, we wanted to end it in four because of all the tiebreakers."

They couldn't.

Brooke Knezevich made sure of it.

Knezevich, the Lady Cardinals' middle hitter, was responsible for giving her team a one-game head start. She reappeared in the fourth game, precisely when her team needed her the most.

With the scored 11-11, Julie Franken recorded back-to-back kills. After a Pojoaque passing error, Franken blocked for 15-11.

Knezevich took over with a pair of kills of two quick sets. When Kassandra Tapia produced a kill from the back row, the score was 18-11.

Twice, the Elkettes closed to within a pair of points. But Knezevich's kill made it 23-20.

After a Trujillo tip and a Roybal block of Knezevich, Franken gave the Lady Cardinals game point, 24-22.

A fifth game became necessary one point later.

But the Elkettes would not go down in defeat. That's because Martinez and Trujillo were in the middle of it.