Lobos Come Up Short Against Fort Thomas in State Playoffs

It was a season filled with memorable victories, joyful celebrations and the kind of success not experienced in these parts since 2015.

It ended, however, with tears, comforting hugs and heartfelt, consoling words between coach and players.

Perhaps the Patagonia High volleyball season was destined to conclude with a loss in the state playoffs, but it came sooner and more suddenly than the Lobos had hoped or expected.

Tenth-ranked Fort Thomas took advantage of its taller roster, superior depth, crisp passing and an unexpectedly poor serving game by Patagonia to knock off the seventh-ranked Lobos in four sets on Tuesday night before a packed house in the Lobos gym. Game scores were 25-22, 25-27, 20-25, 23-25.

That the Lobos, who finished with a 16-5 record, did not play up to their capabilities was what most disappointed coach Brenda Somoza.

“That’s the thing,” she said. “We didn’t play well. We missed too many serves. We didn’t hit well. You can’t get away with that when you’re playing a team like that.”

The Lobos left it all on the court, literally, with several players diving to the floor repeatedly on the match’s last point to keep the ball in play, but Fort Thomas was able to put away the victory with its superior game at the net.

“Their passing was really good, so they were able to execute their hitting well,” Somoza said.

Errant serving and unforced errors cost the Lobos from the start, allowing Fort Thomas to take a 22-18 lead in the first set, but a Monique Snell kill started to turn the tide. 

Snell served a pair of aces, and two kills by Brianna Majalca put the Lobos up 24-22. They thought they had won the set on the next point, but because Fort Thomas had hit ball into the basketball backboard, officials ordered the point be replayed, thus delaying Patagonia’s celebration temporarily.

The second set was similar to the first, with Fort Thomas capitalizing on Patagonia errors to take a 17-9 lead. But the Lobos again rallied, with Snell supplying five kills to help even the score at 21. An ace by Amaya Somoza gave Patagonia a brief 25-24 lead, but the Apaches evened the match by scoring the next three points.

The Lobos never led by more than one point in the third set – the final time at 14-13, but Fort Thomas rallied for seven consecutive points and the Lobos never recovered.

The lead swung back and forth in the fourth set, with neither team able to pull ahead by more than three points. Somoza called timeout with Patagonia trailing 19-18, and the Lobos responded by taking five of the next six points – four of them on kills by Snell – to take a 23-20 lead. But another errant serve ended the rally, and Fort Thomas closed out the match with five consecutive points, leaving the Lobos to fight back tears as they hugged out their disappointment.

“It was amazing. We had a great season, and I’m so proud of these kids,” Somoza said.

Seniors Majalca and Emma Lewton will graduate after stellar four-year careers, but Somoza looks forward to building upon this season’s success. Amaya Somoza and Snell should provide a strong nucleus, along with continued development of younger players Charlotte Myers, Nicole Cabrera, Reyna Velasquez, Losiram Estrada and Viviana Pelayo.

“People don’t understand what we are up against here,” Somoza said. “I have 71 kids in my school, and anybody who wants to play gets to play and I get to build a team off of that. I don’t have a lot of experienced players that come back year after year after year, so for us to be able to grow this program into what it is and to have success last year and this year, I’m proud of that.

“It didn’t end how I wanted it to, or how they wanted it to, but at the end of the day when I look at the season overall, I’m very proud of them.”