Gallup netters make fifth straight playoff trip noteworthy

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – The Gallup volleyball program played in its fifth consecutive state tournament last week.

That narrative isn’t rare by any means, but ninth-year coach LaRena Morris has accomplished that feat despite having a slight disadvantage against most playoff teams.

“The teams here (at the state tournament) play year-round,” Morris said. “Our team doesn’t come together until the beginning of August. Most of our players are either doing summer softball or summer basketball and what you see at the end of the season is what we bring at the start of August.

“I think we’ve done a fantastic job of coming here on a consistent basis,” she added. “We want to keep that going.”

The Lady Bengals entered the Class 4A playoffs as the 10th-seed and they went 1-2 at the tournament, which featured a double-elimination bracket in the early rounds at the Rio Rancho Events Center.

Gallup rallied past No. 7 seed Portales in the opening round with a 25-13, 20-25, 14-25, 25-20 and 15-4 win on Nov. 16. Later that day, the Morris-coached team took on No. 2 seed Roswell Goddard.

The Lady Rockets of Goddard sent Gallup into the elimination side of the bracket with a 25-16, 25-11 and 25-9 win.

“The brackets were set up weird,” Morris said. “If you lost that first round game you got a bye until the next day and we had won, so we had to play again.”

Morris said the five-set win over Portales took a lot out of her squad.

“You could tell that we were tired,” she said. “(The Portales) game kind of burnt us out when we played Goddard. We were kind of going back and forth in that first set, and then we just lost the momentum.”

In its elimination game, the Bengals faced crosstown rival Miyamura and that contest went the distance. The Lady Patriots of Miyamura advanced with a 27-25, 29-31, 25-22, 20-25 and 15-8 win.

“We went up against a team that was set with seniors,” Morris said of the Lady Patriots. “I mean, they were a team that has 10 seniors and they’re all starters.”

In comparison, Morris said she started a bevy of underclassmen, which included eighth-grader Danika Dalgai, who plays the outside hitter position.

“I think we did very well,” Morris said. “We stayed competitive and they fought. That is what I’m most proud to see is that they kept fighting.”

That element was in full display in the second set as it appeared that Gallup had no chance of winning. Nevertheless, the Lady Bengals won 31-29 after falling behind by as much as 11 points.

Trailing 19-8, the Morris-coached team put away 10 kills and added three stuff blocks and two aces in that 23-to-10 point swing. Junior middle hitter Rylie Whitehair racked up five of her game-best 23 kills during that stretch.

In the opening set, Gallup received a timely ace from sophomore Summer Joe for a 25-24 lead, but Miyamura outscored the Lady Bengals 3-0 the rest of the way, with Lady Patriot sophomore Elena Haley getting a huge stuff.

In set three, Miyamura went on another late run to break a 21-21 tie as it won 25-22.

With its back against the wall, Gallup used a 5-0 run to go up 18-13 as it rode out that momentum with a 25-20 win in set four.

In the deciding set, Miyamura coach Eric Zamora changed his lineup and he moved senior setter Amber Duboise to start the game as his team’s first server.

That change gave Miyamura a 6-0 advantage as the Lady Bengals inched as close a 9-6 before the Zamora-coached team finished the set on a 6-2 run.

“Amber Duboise was pretty hot and we pretty much kept them off balance,” Zamora said. “She was hitting some really big spots for us.”

Gallup is set to graduate four seniors next spring, including starting setter SJ Haines. The other seniors are Jaelyn Dakia, Shaylynn Sherman and Tierra James.

“I’m losing my main setter, but the rest are coming back,” Morris said. “We appreciate the teams we played and this is going to give us some experience for next year.”

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