Sartans spoil RR opener, sweep Rams at home

RIO RANCHO — It was an energetic atmosphere for Rio Rancho High School’s volleyball’s opener Thursday, but the St. Pius X Sartans spoiled the party.

In a three-set sweep, the Sartans defeated the Rams on Thursday night. Last year’s 4A state champion was a tall task for the Rams to handle on night one, falling to 0-1 with St. Pius now sitting at 2-0.

“I thought we could have come out of the gate a little quicker. We went down 4-0 in the first set, and that set the tempo for the set,” Head Coach Toby Manzanares said. “I just think, anytime you have that first match, expectations and jitters, things tend to kind of go off the rails a little bit.”

The Rams looked outmatched in set one, dropping it by 10 points, 25-15. But in set two, Rio Rancho started to come to life.

“I thought we were solid at the midpoint of each of the matches,” Manzanares said. “In set three, we got down really big. But it was a pretty valiant effort to crawl back in and get into the 20s.”

Crawl is the perfect definition, as Manzanares and his team went on some impressive runs and stretches to keep themselves off the ropes. But at the end of the day, the Sartans’ size proved to be too much.

“They’ve (Pius) got good size in the middle of the floor. They got some high flyers, even though they’re not very big, but we’re not very big,” Manzanares said. “We have to do the things that we can control really well, night in and night out. That’s being really aggressive from the service line. That’s being really solid defensively.”

Pius returns three of its top four leaders in kills from last season, and it showed. An undersized Rams front row had to regroup to find some answers.

On a night where the margin for error was already slim, self-inflicted wounds from the Rams in service errors and overpasses hurt them in the long run. But on night one, it’s about shaking off those errors and getting into the groove of the season.

“First-game jitters, I think, are real for every team. But you know, in conversation at the end of the match, we always ask them: Give us a couple of things that you did well or that we did well as a team,” Manzanares said. “Name a couple of things that we can do better, and I thought their responses were really good.”

Some positives did stand out for Rio Rancho. Junior Paige Spolar looks like a force to be reckoned with in the middle. Seniors Briland Kienle and Jacey Mader lit a spark in set three, being very effective in the front row. And while having to deal with hard swings all night, senior Allyson Tennent and the defense did a solid job digging out a lot of Pius’ attacks.

The Rams will look to bottle up these positives and carry them into a jam-packed schedule next week, facing senior outside hitter Aleena Hubbard and Santa Fe at home on Tuesday.

“Going into Santa Fe, we know she’s (Hubbard) gonna get her kills,” Manzanares said. “We’ve got to quiet everyone else down, try to get them out of a system enough that we can defend and transition into attacks. I think it’s a coin flip, but I like having it at home.”