Magdalena Steers volleyball team off to a solid start

Prior to the start of the season, Magdalena Steers volleyball Head Coach Micheon Shellhorn had said that her goal was to start strong and finish stronger. The team was definitely off to a strong start, having won each of its first two matches 3-0.

The varsity girls won by wide margins in each of their sets for their first match of the season versus To’hajiilee on Tuesday, August 26, of last week: 25-16, 25-15, 25-13.

Next, the varsity team won against Mountainair in three straight sets: 25-13, 25-15 and 25-9.

“I’m excited watching the girls play through some of their tough moments tonight,” Shellhorn said after the match versus Mountainair.

She said they are proud of their consistency.

“The times that they do make mistakes, they are able to regroup quickly,” Shellhorn said, “That’s what we want, is to regroup and to refocus and take advantage of our highs and get control of our lows.”

The next day on August 29 the Steers lost to Zuni Thunderbirds.

“We came up short tonight with a loss in four. We had a lot of errors in game one, but came back in game two from a pretty big margin,” Shellhorn said.

They didn’t win that second set, but did win the third. In the fourth, they lost a close one, 24-26. And the team finished a week of three matches with a 2-1 record.

Shellhorn gave a few shout-outs to individual players, starting with junior and team captain Nikole Torres, number two.

“Nikole, she’s our powerhouse server. We’re really proud of her, and we’re really proud of Elia for taking on a new role. In the past, she’s been my defensive specialist, now she’s playing all the way around for me, and she’s adjusting really well,” Shellhorn said.

Ella Cleveland, number five is a senior and team captain. She has great game IQ and can always drop the ball in the spots where the defenders aren’t.

“That’s why she’s there, because she can see it.” Shellhorn said.

The team has only two seniors and four juniors on its roster. Not only are they off to the strong start that the coach hoped for, but they have a promising future as well. Three sophomores and seven freshmen are on the varsity roster and get significant playing time.

“We have some freshmen that are coming off the bench. Really, really proud of Kali. She’s rolled in the last two games and filled some big gaps for us and scored a lot of points,” Shellhorn said of Kali Bruton, number seven.

The junior varsity team played and won its first match on Thursday versus Mountainair prior to the varsity team’s 2nd match of the season.

“We started off a bit slow, but we’re working through it. We’re figuring out a rotation that works for us.” JV Coach Michalela Zamora said.

All but four of the JV squad also play on the varsity team. JV won in two straight sets: 25-17 and 25-9. The JV team also lost against Zuni, but in three sets. They now have a win and a loss.

Shellhorn said the junior high A team won versus Zuni, improving their record to 2-1. So the Steers volleyball program still came away with many bright spots against the Zuni teams.

“We hope to just keep going and keep building on what we’ve started so far,” Shellhorn said.