NMAA releases state volleyball brackets, Nine area squads earn bids

WINDOW ROCK

The New Mexico high school state volleyball playoffs will begin Thursday morning at various sites in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

The state pairings for all five brackets were released on Sunday by the New Mexico Activities Association. Based on the statewide rankings, the brackets comprise the top 12 teams in each classification.

Three teams in the Navajo Times’ coverage area made the field in the Class 3A bracket headed by No. 3 seed Santa Fe Indian School.

The Lady Braves (18-5 overall) have a bye in the opening round of the double-elimination bracket. SFIS finished second in District 2-3A behind top-seed Santa Fe St. Michael’s (20-3).

In District 1-3A, league champion Tohatchi (20-3) earned the No. 9 seed, while district runner-up Navajo Prep (13-9) got the 11th seed.

Tohatchi will play No. 8 West Las Vegas (14-5) at 8 a.m. Thursday at the Rio Rancho Event Center. Navajo Prep takes on sixth-seed Albuquerque Cottonwood Classical (17-5) at the same time and location.

“We’re pretty happy with where we’re at,” second-year Tohatchi coach Jonath Gee said of the state seedings. “We get to play a familiar team with West Las Vegas. Of course, they’re ahead of us, and we’re looking forward to playing them.”

The winners of the first-round games will advance into the next round to play the tourney’s higher seed at 2 p.m. at the RREC.

The losers will drop into the elimination bracket and play on Friday morning at 8 a.m.

In the 4A bracket, Miyamura and Gallup (17-6) made the state field from District 1-4A. The Lady Patriots of Miyamura (16-5) won the district title and were seeded No. 8.

Gallup, the district runner-up, got the 10th seed, and it will play No. 7 Portales at 10 a.m. at the RREC on Thursday.

Miyamura, meanwhile, is matching up with No. 9 Santa Teresa, also at 10 a.m.

“I think we’re one of the hottest teams coming into the state tournament,” first-year Miyamura coach Eric Zamora said. “I’m willing to say that we’re probably one of the teams nobody wants to play, so that works for me.

“We’ve been under the radar all year long, and I’m really cool with that,” he added.

Zamora said they went through a brutal September with a tough schedule and many injured players.

“It was hard, but I told these girls that the hard games that we played in September are gonna matter at the end,” he said. “It’s not going to be all for naught, so we had to stay the course.

“It’s a good time for us to start peaking,” he added. “We’ll make some mistakes now and then, but we can be good.”

In the 2A bracket, two-time defending state champs Laguna Acoma (18-5) gained the fourth seed, and it will await the winner of the Hagerman (15-8) and Rehoboth Christian survivor at 2 p.m. at Rio Rancho High School on Thursday.

The Rehoboth Lady Lynx (12-10) made the field as the No. 12 seed, and it will play Hagerman at 10 a.m. at RRHS.

In 1A, Pine Hill (16-6) and Alamo Navajo (16-4) both earned bids.

Alamo Navajo, the 12th seed, meets No. 5 seed Springer (19-4) at 10 a.m. at Bernalillo High School. Seventh-seed Pine Hill plays No. 10 Quemado (17-5) at noon following that match.

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