Metro Roundup: La Cueva takes down Rams, Storm onto semifinals over VV

RIO RANCHO — It’s tournament time on the hardwood as the Rio Rancho Rams and Cleveland Storm volleyball teams prepared for round one of the APS Metro on Thursday night.

Rio Rancho vs La Cueva

When talking to the Observer before the season, Rams Head Coach Toby Manzanares discussed the Rams being a more undersized, scrappy team compared to the big, physical squads elsewhere.

One of the big teams he mentioned? The La Cueva Bears.

In the opening round, the Bears took a three-game sweep over the Rams. But while La Cueva is a routine Metro powerhouse, winning this tournament five straight years up until 2024, Rio Rancho still put up a competitive fight.

The Rams battled in the first two sets, losing by a single-digit margin, including a close back-and-forth in set two with a 25-18 loss.

Junior middle hitter Paige Spolar recorded six kills on the night, her second-highest total of the season. Addicyn Bishop’s 13 assists give her five straight games with double-digit assist totals to open the season.

Rio Rancho did its best to contain La Cueva’s front row, a unit that gave Cleveland trouble a short week ago, as three different Rams recorded eight or more digs.

While the loss takes them out of Metro championship contention, the Rams still have several positives to build on. They are coming off a third-place finish this past weekend in a Las Cruces tournament, where they defeated their Friday opponent, the Los Lunas Tigers, in a three-game sweep.

Manzanares and his crew will look to repeat last weekend’s result as the Rams head into the APS fifth-place bracket.

Cleveland vs Volcano VistaWhile Rio Rancho vs La Cueva had the makings of “David versus Goliath,” you could say the Storm versus the Hawks was more so “Goliath versus David.”

In what had the makings of a three-game sweep, Volcano Vista stole the third set before falling in four to the Storm 3-1.

Cleveland held the size advantage and brought more firepower to the table, but that did not deter the energetic Volcano Vista squad.

The first two sets were competitive early on before the talent of the Storm let them pull away, winning 25-13 and 25-16.

As we’ve seen early on this season, the biggest opponent to the Storm can often be themselves. Head Coach Charity Gomez talked about making sure to play their style of volleyball last week, and the Storm lost a sense of that in set three.

After a late set comeback by the Hawks, Cleveland held a 26-25 lead. One point away from the sweep, the Storm committed three straight attack errors to extend the match.

Some may say it had the makings of an underdog story after that third set, but not all underdogs have to deal with Azylnn Tittmann, who had another monster match with double-digit kills, pushing her to 87 on the season. That total puts her in the top five in the state currently.

Aside from Tittmann, Aaliyah Simpson and Raquel Guevara played key parts in the front row all night long. Freshman middle blocker Lela Del Angel contributed some huge blocks, some coming in pivotal moments, as she made the most of her court time.

Cleveland would dominate set four 25-13, moving on to face St. Pius X in the semifinals.