La Cueva volleyball looks to finally complete three-peat
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BVM) — It’s been a long wait and the road to the state tournament has been nothing like what the La Cueva Bears are accustomed to. But if they can win just two more matches this week, they’ll finally be able to call themselves back-to-back-to-back state champions.
Two-time defending Class 5A volleyball state champion La Cueva has reached the semifinals of New Mexico’s state tournament, which will bring an end to the state’s delayed, shortened spring high school volleyball season. The No. 3-seeded Bears have only played six matches since mid-March and have won all of them to run the program’s overall win streak to 28. Usually, it takes two and a half months and somewhere around 20 matches for a team to reach the state semifinals. But of course, this is a season unlike any other.
Back in October, La Cueva believed it was just a few days away from starting its already delayed season before the New Mexico Activities Association postponed all fall sports for a second time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It would be more than four more months before the NMAA finally received the green light to proceed with sports again.
But now the Bears have their shot to make good on all of the promise they came into the season with after capturing their second straight state title last season. The return of many of the same players who played key roles in the 2019 championship run — including New Mexico State commit Sidney McIntosh (senior outside hitter) and fellow All-State selections Erin Jones (junior setter) and Angelyse Gonzales-Sanchez (senior libero) — has made La Cueva the favorite to hoist the championship trophy whenever the season was completed.
The 5A championship will be held Saturday in The Pit at the University of New Mexico, and if the Bears can defeat the 12-0 Centennial Hawks — the team they beat for the 2019 state title 16 and a half months ago — on the road in Thursday’s semifinals, they’ll have their chance to finish off a long-awaited three-peat.
