State volleyball: Portales wins 3A title

ALBUQUERQUE — For the fifth time in the last eight seasons, the Portales Lady Rams are the last team standing in Class 3A volleyball.

The Lady Rams defeated Las Vegas Robertson 11-25, 25-15, 25-11, 25-19 in Saturday’s championship match at the University of New Mexico’s Johnson Center.

As the ball flew into Portales’ half of the court on match point, senior Bethany Self had only one thing on her mind.

“I was just saying, ‘I’m gonna kill it,’” Self said.

Portales coach Ruth Chavez said her players had confidence after coming back against second-seeded Pojoaque in Friday’s semifinals.

“I think that gave us a big boost of confidence that we could beat a team like that and it made us feel like we could come in here and do anything,” Chavez said.

Early on, it appeared Robertson had all the answers.

“I think we were kind of down,” Portales senior Jordan Roehl said. “We weren’t really talking and stuff so most of the mistakes we made, we made on ourselves.

“We helped them out giving them points and stuff, but they played really well in the first game, too. They were fired up and ready to come out.”

When the Lady Rams came to the bench after the first game, Chavez had a message.

“I told them we worked all summer long and every day of our lives for this; we can’t hand it to them,” Chavez said. “They’re a young team, and we knew that if we could start hitting the ball, we could force them to make mistakes, and that’s all it took.”

Portales quickly turned it around and dominated Game 2.

“I was still confident,” Self said. “I knew we could pull it out.”

The Lady Rams kept the momentum through the third and fourth games.

“We just didn’t play scared,” Self said. “We just played and we felt good. We just had to start hitting it harder.”

Roehl said the players simply had to keep their focus.

“We weren’t really worried because Pojoaque came out (in the first game) and they beat us, too,” she said. “So we just figured that we had to pull through it again, and we did. We pulled together like a team and we got them in three right after that.”

Robertson’s strength was its hitting, and Chavez made note of that.

“We just knew they were going to be a big hitting team,” Chavez said. “So we just knew that we had to hit good balls. We knew we had to come out and fight and play hard.”

Self led Portales with 15 kills, followed by sophomore Jenna Wagner with 10 and Roehl with nine.

“Bethany struggled a little in pool play, but she stepped up for us when she needed to,” Chavez said. “She played hard and did well.

“The other kids on the team look up to her, and sometimes it’s hard (when she struggles). But she stepped up and they went with her and I think that’s what we needed to see.”

Portales setter Dallas Russell dished out 30 assists.

“We couldn’t do it without our passers and our setter Dallas,” Roehl said. “She’s amazing, she gets everything up and our passers give us great passes every time.”