A Storm Warning To Class 5A Volleyball Competition
Class 5A volleyball teams should take notice of a Storm on the horizon. “This is such a competitive group,” said Cleveland senior Emma Wild. “I feel like we are full of so much talent and so much competitiveness, it’s really fun to play. There’s a lot of chemistry.”
“We had a great summer and played three weeks before the season started and we won all the tournaments that we went to, so we knew we had the talent,” said Cleveland head coach Charity Gomez. “We’re just trying to figure out if that talent has desire, if that desire is there, and we figured out pretty fast that it is. Now we’re trying to refine some skills to take us through the rest of the season.”
The Cleveland Storm has only lost one game in their last five matches, and that includes a 3-0 sweep of traditional power La Cueva to win the Albuquerque Metro Championships for the very first time. “That’s a goal of ours every year when we write our goals down, it is always at the top of our list, it’s ‘Be metro champs and win state’,” said the 5th year head coach. “For me personally, that’s the first time, since I’ve been at Cleveland, that we’ve beaten La Cueva.”
“We’ve been talking about it since my freshman year, probably even before that,” said senior Kelsey Heffner. “It was a really big deal, it felt like we accomplished one of our biggest goals and it was very satisfying.”
“It was an amazing experience, we all wanted it really bad,” said junior Azlynn Tittmann. “It was honestly one of the top moments of my volleyball career so far.”
Cleveland has five seniors, including Kelsey Heffner who committed to play at Sacramento State. “Try to get a kill when I can, get blocks, be big, be scary if you will, I feel like that’s my role,” said Heffner.
“It’s not normal to have a person in the middle that’s your ‘go-to’ player,” explained Gomez. “She’s just been that person for us. We try to find her and get her the ball as much as we can.”
The Storm will compete in the upcoming Rio Rancho Volleybash Tournament with a who’s who of top teams. “We’ll have Las Cruces, La Cueva, Los Lunas, Albuquerque, St. Pius X from 4A, it’s going to be our litmus test to see where we are at and and where we can upgrade to push us into district and then state,” said Gomez.
Cleveland last reached the state final in 2021, but they haven’t won it all since 2012. Lifting the blue trophy is definitely a topic of discussion. “Oh yeah, we talk about it every day,” said their head coach. “We are trying to focus on what we need to do and we have proven to ourselves, because we have played these teams, we know we matchup, but when it comes down to it we have to execute. If we execute, it’s just going to be a battle to 25.”
“That is something we definitely talk about in this gym, but it’s not without a lot of hard work and it’s not without a lot of things that havae to happen beforehand,” said Tittmann. “I think all these girls have that common goal that we want to win and it’s really fun environment to be in.”
“We definitely talk about it, I think we have a really good chance this year,” said Heffner. “I’m excited because it’s the best chance we’ve had since my freshman year and it’s always been a goal, so hopefully we can accomplish that.”
