Volleyball Preview: Santa Fe Demons vs. Sandia Matadors
The Santa Fe Demons will be staying on the road on Tuesday to face off against the Sandia Matadors at 6:00 p.m.
Santa Fe is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of New Mexico's top teams: Albuquerque, who was ranked 11th in their home state at the time (Santa Fe was ranked fifth). Santa Fe took a 3-1 hit to the loss column at the hands of Albuquerque on Saturday. While the Demons didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Bulldogs 32-30 in the first set.
Santa Fe started the match hot and won the first set, but they struggled down the stretch and lost the last three. The match finished with set scores of 30-32, 25-17, 25-17, 25-21.
Meanwhile, Sandia waltzed into their matchup on Thursday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They walked away with a 3-1 win over the Golden Eagles.
Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-16, 23-25, 25-17, 25-16.
Sandia's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Leanne Romero, who had eight digs and six aces, and Yaselle Armijo, who had 25 digs. Romero has been hot recently, having also posted 16 or more assists the last three times she's played. Another player making a difference was Jayla Lacey, who had ten digs and two aces.
She wasn't the only good server: Sandia was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 17 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least 12 aces in three consecutive games.
Santa Fe's loss dropped their record down to 14-3. As for Sandia, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 6-11 record this season.
Everything went Santa Fe's way against Sandia in their previous meeting back in September of 2022, as Santa Fe made off with a 3-0 victory. Does Santa Fe have another victory up their sleeve, or will Sandia turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
