The high school volleyball season is barely a week old, but the Patagonia Lobos have already shown that they can punch above their weight class.
The Lobos opened the season with back-to-back 3-0 victories over Class 2A opponents. They dominated Bisbee 25-6, 25-17, 25-15 in their home opener last Wednesday, then went on the road and defeated Tombstone 25-11, 25-16, 25-23 on Thursday.
The Lobos carried that momentum with them to Willcox on Saturday, where they won three of four matches and finished as runners-up in the eight-team Cochise County Roundup. They won their pool play with victories over Fort Thomas and 1A South Region rivals San Simon and The Gregory School before falling to Morenci, another Class 2A school, in the championship match.
Three Patagonia players—senior Brianna Majalca, junior Amaya Somoza and sophomore Monique Snell—were voted onto the all-tournament team by the eight coaches.
“We almost had them [Morenci],” first-year head coach Brenda Somoza said. “They were a very quick team, and they caught us a little off-guard. If we has been ready to play a very fast team, I think we would have been able to take them.”
These early season victories could be critical for Patagonia in its bid to return to the 1A state tournament with a favorable seed. Patagonia qualified for state last year for the first time since 2016 but was seeded 13th and was eliminated in the first round.
Somoza said the goal this year is to earn a top-10 seed, with hopes of advancing beyond the first round. Tombstone and Morenci both qualified for the Class 2A state tournament last season, and Gregory finished ahead of the Lobos in the 1A South region, so the early results are promising. Tombstone had defeated Patagonia 11 consecutive times, dating back through 2011.
“I’m very happy with the way they’re playing,” Somoza said. “It’s been nice to have so much game time early on. It’s given me some really good insight on what we need to work on. We need to get a little more consistent with our serving, and we need to take more risks when we’re hitting the ball. We have to learn to play more of a fast-paced game when we play teams that are going to be more challenging for us.”
On the flip side, she’s been especially pleased with the Lobos’ serve receiving, citing senior libero Lulu Donnelly.
“Lulu’s been great on defense,” Somoza said. “That’s something we struggled with last year.”
The Lobos have another busy week ahead, with a road match at San Manuel on Wednesday, a home match against ASDB on Thursday and another round of tournament competition at the Small School Invite on Saturday, hosted by Horizon Honors High School in Phoenix. The tournament will feature 40 teams from Class 1A, 2A and 3A.
“It’s nice that we can test ourselves against teams that we don’t normally see,” Somoza said.