2022 Girls Metro Championship Recap!

<p style="text-align: center;">The Girls Metro Basketball Tournament started Tuesday January 4th and this past Saturday January 8th, we crowned the Volcano Vista Hawks as the 2022 Metro Champions.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Volcano Vista started this tournament coming in as the #1 seed in a 16 team Metro Tournament. They are the defending 2021 5A State Champions from last season. They came into this tournament undefeated at 7-0 and the early favorites to win this tournament. This team was led by Coach Lisa Villareal.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">In the first round of the tournament, they were matched up with #16 seed Rio Grande and they defeated the Ravens easily 76-6 to open up this tournament. They were led by Savannah McGuire and [player_tooltip player_id="353694" first="Natalia" last="Chavez"] who both scored 12 points each to lead the team that game. Than in the next round they were matched up with #8 Rio Rancho in the Metro Quarterfinals. The Volcano Vista Hawks defeated the Rams in another blowout 62-31. In this game they were led by [player_tooltip player_id="357657" first="Taejhuan" last="Hill"] who led the team in scoring with 15 points that night. Mila Espinoza also scored 12 points as the teams second leading scorer in that game. Than the Volcano Vista Hawks advanced to the Metro Semifinals to face #4 Cleveland. The Hawks defeated the Storm 66-36 to advance to the Metro Championship game. The player of the game from the semifinals victory was [player_tooltip player_id="353770" first="Kennedy" last="Brown"] with her ability to disrupt shots defensively, take the ball away defensively and her leadership on the floor with her teammates.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">In the Metro Championship the #1 Volcano Vista Hawks were set to meet the #2 La Cueva Bears who they have faced twice already this season. Their first meeting was the season opener November 30th on the road at La Cueva High School. They defeated the Bears in the first meeting 75-49 behind [player_tooltip player_id="353694" first="Natalia" last="Chavez"]’s 29 points. In the teams second meeting December 21st, the Hawks defeated the Bears 61-41 behind [player_tooltip player_id="353693" first="Jaelyn" last="Bates"] 18 Points.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">In this third meeting in the Metro Championship vs La Cueva, the Hawks trailed in the first quarter 17-16. After making adjustments in the second quarter, the Hawks were able to regain the lead at halftime 31-28. After the 3rd quarter they led 41-35. After a huge 4th quarter they scored 27 points in the quarter and defeated the La Cueva Bears 68-51 to win the Girls Metro Championship. They were led by [player_tooltip player_id="353694" first="Natalia" last="Chavez"] and [player_tooltip player_id="353693" first="Jaelyn" last="Bates"] who had 24 points each which combined for 48 points in this game. [player_tooltip player_id="353770" first="Kennedy" last="Brown"] played a great defensive game on La Cueva’s star player [player_tooltip player_id="353758" first="Rylie" last="Ottmann"]. Volcano Vista’s center [player_tooltip player_id="357657" first="Taejhuan" last="Hill"] ended the game with 9 points.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Team Roster :</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Liliana Duncan, Faith Ortiz, [player_tooltip player_id="353693" first="Jaelyn" last="Bates"], [player_tooltip player_id="353770" first="Kennedy" last="Brown"], Mari Manzanares, Jade Lovato, Savannah McGuire, Mila Espinoza, [player_tooltip player_id="353694" first="Natalia" last="Chavez"], Storm Nguyen, Colette Tena, [player_tooltip player_id="357657" first="Taejhuan" last="Hill"] and [player_tooltip player_id="353903" first="Angelyn" last="Aranda"].</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Coaches :</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Lisa Villareal, Janelle Salazar, Lisa Madrid, Ross Villareal, Shantel Lucero and D-Ray</p> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;