SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
Maybe the Las Cruces Centennial girls had a chip on their shoulder arriving at Saturday’s state 5A volleyball championship as the No. 2 seed and facing the overall top-seeded Santa Fe High team, and if so, the Hawks took it out on the outplayed Demonettes to claim their initial state title at the University of New Mexico’s Dreamstyle Arena.
It was a masterful straight-set sweep for undefeated Centennial as it won its 14th match in a row and with its 12th sweep, with the scores 25-14, 25-20, 25-9. And the Hawks came out firing, going ahead quickly in the opening set and maintaining it to win handily. The highlights were the one-two punch of senior Sara Benge and sophomore Tess Fuqua as Benge came away with eight kills and Fuqua contributed seven digs to go with a pair of serving aces.
In set two, the Demonettes (10-2) went in front 11-8 as they got stronger at the net, but back came District 3-5A champion Centennial to counter with a 7-2 run capped by senior Jazlynn Escudero’s serve that gazed the net before landing on the hardwood for the ace, one of nine served up by the Hawks.
At set point with a 24-20 lead, Benge and Fuqua teamed up to block a spike at the net, with the ball ricocheting off Santa Fe senior Jorja Chambers and into the bleachers to secure the 25-20 triumph. Now, with a state title in sight, the Hawks got behind Fuqua sending another missile over the net, putting in back-to-back aces, and maintaining the momentum they brought.
This was in set three, and whatever they hit was tough to dig, thus claiming a convincing 15-4 advantage with no fans allowed in the stands. Twice, Santa Fe High managed to fend off match points, but Hawks’ senior Alexie Stiles eventually sealed the deal with a kill at 24-9 that won the title.
This occurred after the Demonettes forced a lengthy rally when Castro set Stiles up with a lob towards the net and Stiles soared through the air and struck the ball hard to send a spherical blur towards the top-right corner of the court. Santa Fe senior Leila Bernardino dove in an effort to get a hand on the projectile, but it narrowly eluded her reach and the ball sailed out of bounds as Centennial began its celebration.
The match took approximately an hour and 30 minutes.
For the Demonettes, their best player all season, Bernardino, had a good match as she was the strength inside for her team and led in kills, digs and blocks. She also served two aces. Chambers had the most assists, a team-high 33.
“It’s sad we had a disappointing ending,” Bernardino said, “but we did have a quality season to win our district (1-5A) and get this far. We were just beaten by a team that came well prepared and we just couldn’t match them.”
Hawks’ Junior Angolina Perez had a team-high 17 kills and Stiles came up with 11 kills and a team-best 13 digs. Then there was Fuqua with 11 kills, senior Brooke Maynez added 10, senior Cora Dubois with a team-high 45 assists, and sophomore Bella Castro with her team-high 13 digs.
Said Centennial head coach Al Rosen after hoisting the championship trophy: “It took awhile, but we’re back. We’ve come close (to a state title) a few times and came away with a number of runner-up trophies. We have three in the trophy case, but now we have our first championship trophy.”
He praised the hot start in the first set, adding that his girls were all so pumped up to be able to get there and play, that they wanted it so badly, so he felt the first set really did set the tone, and that he realized that Santa Fe was a good team, but that his team was sky-high as it came up with its 12th sweep after dropping only two sets all season.
Neither team had a height advantage, with both having two 6-1 players, one 6-footer. and a pair of 5-10s, but Centennial made better use of its height, slamming kills, blocking shots and serving well.
“We had some obstacles along the way,” Stiles said, “but we had great spirit and stuck together. There was some disheartening times, but we came here expecting to leave with the championship trophy, and that we did.”
It was Stiles on the final play of the match with an off-system play, but it worked as she said it was a play that she set up pretty well, just slammed on the court, and with it the state title.
The other Santa Fe High loss came versus district foe Rio Rancho Cleveland, 3-2, but then it got past the Storm three times. The Demonettes had swept nine opponents, but disposed of 6th- seeded Clovis, 3-1, in the semifinals played at home. The Hawks opened with a 3-1 win over archrival Las Cruces, then went on sweeps until the 3-1 success against 3rd-seeded, previously unbeaten La Cueva at home.
