History-making: Santa Fe Indian earns first state trophy with 2nd place finish

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – It wasn’t the trophy that they wanted, but the Santa Fe Indian School volleyball team made history.

The Lady Braves played in their first-ever state title game on Saturday night at the Rio Rancho Events Center.

SFIS battled district rival Santa Fe St. Michael’s for the 3A state trophy, with the Lady Horsemen (24-3 overall) earning its third sweep over Santa Fe Indian.

The set scores were 25-21, 25-20 and 25-18.

“We’ll get that monkey off our backs,” Santa Fe Indian School volleyball coach Joseph Garcia said of solving the Lady Horsemen. “We’ll figure it out and we’ll make the adjustments.”

The second-year coach said he’s “super happy” to have his girls play in the finale as SFIS entered the playoffs as the third seed.

“We played volleyball till the very end,” Garcia said. “We played Lady Braves ball and to bring Santa Fe Indian School this far, we’ve made history by taking a trophy home. It’s super amazing to play on Championship Saturday.”

Garcia was pleased with how the season went as the Lady Braves finished the year at 21-6 overall.

“Everything we did to prepare for state paid off,” he said. “Yes, it may not be the trophy we want, but we’ll be back. We’re very young and the seniors that I had led us with the leadership all season long.

“It stings right now, but we’ll be fine,” Garcia added. “We’re gonna come back next year.”

SFIS senior outside hitter Maria Begay echoed her coach’s sentiments while adding that not too many teams can say that they played in a state title game.

“This is really huge for the program,” said Begay, who is a two-year varsity player. “We’ve never gotten this far at all or we’ve never been seeded this high in school history. What we did put us on the map, and now you can’t underestimate Santa Fe Indian School.”

The Diné player, who has roots in the Smith Lake and To’hajiilee communities, shared top honors in the hitting department with junior opposite/middle hitter Emma Lewis.

Both players had six kills as Santa Fe Indian racked up 21 kills. St. Michael’s, on the other hand, tallied 38 kills in its three-set sweep.

“We gave it our all,” Begay said. “I have no doubt that we were playing with a lot of heart that entire game. (St. Michael’s) has a real strong service game and sometimes they are hard to defend.”

In all three sets, St. Michael’s clinched the win with strong finishes. In the opening set, the Lady Braves got within 22-21 but they tossed in a couple of errors and St. Michael’s capped the win with a service ace from junior outside hitter Marissa Sandoval-Moya.

In the second set, the Lady Horsemen led again by one point late, 20-19, but used a 5-1 scoring run to win 25-20. Sandoval-Moya had a hand in that as she put away two of her team-best 12 kills in that late surge.

In the third, Santa Fe Indian cut a 7-point deficit down to 15-13 on a clean winner by Lewis. The Lady Horsemen, however, ended that threat and coasted to a 25-18 win.

“We just ran out of gas at times, but we still picked ourselves up” Garcia said. “We still battled and we still fought, and we left everything on the court tonight.

“We just played our hearts out, and that is what I love about this team,”.

Garcia believes the experience of having played in the 3A title game will help elevate the program. He’s hoping that his club can make it an annual tradition of battling for a state title in the coming years.

“We’re not satisfied,” he said. “We’re going to keep coming back, and we’re going to keep knocking on that door.”

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