Ramah volleyball adds state title banner after 9 years

Posted by Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi | Nov 20, 2014 | Volleyball |

The Ramah volleyball team celebrates after defeating Melrose 3-2 in the New Mexico Class 2A state championship on Nov. 15 at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, N.M. (Times photo – Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi)

RIO RANCHO, N.M.

Throughout the season, Ramah’s girls’ volleyball team has looked at the blank spot under the row of championship banners at their high school.

The top two banners are for the titles the girls’ basketball team has won, the next two are for the football team, then there’s one under that that belongs to the volleyball team that won a title in 2005.

Starting players Taea Hill, Jordyn Lewis and Charlie Daniels have been looking to fill that spot and on Nov. 15 they did, winning the Class 2A state title by defeating Melrose 3-2 (25-13, 17-25, 21-25, 25-9, 15-8) at the Santa Ana Star Center.

“All year we were wanting to get that one and we finally did it,” Lewis said.

After nine years, the team took home the blue trophy. Their journey for the title started last year when Ramah head coach Deana Larson took over the program. The team made it as far as the semifinals last season but fell short to Bosque.

Larson said the secret to their success was to learn from their mistakes. She said last year they had a fairly easy season and didn’t play hard-hitting teams but that wasn’t the case this year.

“We’ve been here last year and which also was a big help,” she said. “We knew people would block, we knew where they would hit, so I brought in some guys and they helped us with that.”

Ramah finished the season with a perfect record of 23-0 and 8-0 in District 1-2A, sweeping most teams with the exception of one match going to four sets.