Storm clouds over La Cueva's attempt to five-peat

For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic — actually, for the first time since two years before the pandemic — the Albuquerque Metro Volleyball Championships finished with a winner other than the La Cueva Bears.

No. 2-ranked Cleveland, just 11 days removed from a five-set loss to La Cueva, turned the tables in a big way on Saturday night, sweeping No. 3 La Cueva in this year’s metro final at Manzano.

Cleveland (6-2) won 25-21, 25-16, 29-27.

“We had something to prove,” Storm senior middle blocker Kelsey Heffner said. “We honestly wanted to win metros since my freshman year, it’s always been a goal to get those blue shirts (that go to the tournament winner) and that trophy.”

Cibola won metros in 2018. La Cueva won the next four: 2019, 2021, 2022 and last year. There was no metro event in 2020.

La Cueva (4-1) won a five-setter against Cleveland on Sept. 3. The Storm overcame some adversity in the first set in the rematch to come from behind, and later had to overcome almost whittling away a couple of match points in the third set before closing the Bears out.

“Our serve-receive and passing improved a bunch (since the last match against La Cueva),” junior outside hitter Azlynn Tittmann said. She had five kills in a pivotal first set for Cleveland. “We were able to run our offense a whole lot more. Even when we were down, our team was able to rely on our passing, rely on our hitters, and we were able to go on runs.”

In the middle set Saturday, Heffner and Tittmann, with four kills apiece, and Ceci Vance, with six kills, Cleveland played its best volleyball. Tittmann added a team-best five kills in the third set.

Heffner said Cleveland was a bit put off by some chatter the Storm was hearing, at least in relation to winning a match as huge as this one.

“We definitely had something to prove,” she said. “We heard a little bit of talk from other people, and we had to prove them wrong.”

It certainly was of benefit to Cleveland that its size, and depth at net, was so problematic, a quality Storm coach Charity Gomez recognized was so potent for La Cueva during the last few seasons.

But Cleveland also had to be cleaner, she said.

“We had 50 errors (the first time the teams met). If we can just score our own points and not score points for them, we will be fine,” Gomez said. “We passed it really well tonight, and when we pass it well, we have so much offense, it’s just hard to deal with.”

Gomez said Saturday’s win also allows the Storm to pivot this season back in the direction Cleveland intended it to go.

“This, I think, gave us back that confidence that we can hang,” she said. “This was our goal for the week. We just wanted to be metro champs and we put all our energy into that.”

In Friday’s semifinals, Cleveland defeated Albuquerque High and La Cueva downed Los Lunas, both in straight sets.

Cleveland sweeps La Cueva to win Albuquerque Metro volleyball tournament