No. 3 seed girls meet Cibola ... again

Two familiar foes meet at the Farmers Insurance Soccer Complex at 11 this morning, as District 1-5A foes Rio Rancho and Cibola play in the New Mexico Activities Association’s World Cup.

The new format to determine the girls’ state champions feature four pools of three teams each; the teams decide which team advances to next week’s semifinals after playing the other two teams in its pool. The teams were seeded Saturday; the Rams drew the 3 seed; they play the sixth- and 11th-seeded teams, Cibola and Carlsbad, respectively. .

Rams coach Uwe Balzis likes this year’s new format for deciding the state champion, but he doesn’t like the fact that his Rams (17-3) will be playing Cibola for the fourth time this season n and the second time in a week.

”They could have switched Cibola and Highland,” he said. “The Cibola coach agreed with me, too. We’ll be playing them four times; it could have been five times if we’d met them at the Academy tournament.

“I think whoever decided is a bonehead — that’s totally ridiculous,” he added.

Last Friday, the Rams whipped the Cougars (16-4) 4-0 at the soccer complex to decide the District 1-5A championship. It was the third straight district title for the Rams; the loss left the Cougars as the district runners-up.

“(The Rams) came out very sharp and aggressive,” Balzis said. “We played very, very good.”

Rio Rancho is on a seven-game winning streak; its last loss was a 2-1 setback to the Cougars on Oct. 4 at the soccer complex The Rams have outscored their opponents 27-2 since that loss, with five shutouts.

“We have a long way to go n this is not the end,” he said.

Balzis said senior Julia Rasmussen would be the goalkeeper in this morning’s contest, which will be played on field 17.

The Rams have won beaten the Cougars seven of their last eight meetings, including all three in 2006 ands in a 2-1 overtime victory that decided the 1-5A title, the first of three in a row for the Rams.

The Rams face Carlsbad (14-6), the District 4-5A champion, Saturday at 11 a.m. on field 17. The pool’s other game, Cibola vs. Carlsbad, will be played Friday at 11 a.m. Because they were a top-four seed, the Rams have the middle day off.

Senior Klarissa Ames, who will play for the University of Pittsburgh next fall, leads the team in scoring for the fourth year in a row, with 14 goals — including the first and final tally Friday — for the season.

This is the fourth year in a row the Rams girls have qualified for the state tournament: They lost in the quarterfinals to Sandia and Highland, respectively, in 2004 and 2006, and got as far as the semifinals in 2005, when they lost to eventual state champ Las Cruces.

The other pools, by seed, are: La Cueva (1), Alamogordo (8) and Hobbs (9); Las Cruces (2), Highland (7) and Manzano (10); and Eldorado (4), Sandia (5) and Mayfield (12).

The 5A semifinals will be contested Nov. 8 at 4:30 p.m. on fields 7 and 8. The 5A championship game will be played Nov. 9 at 4:30 on field 8.

La Cueva is the defending 5A champ; the Bears outlasted Las Cruces 1-0 in last year’s championship game.

Tickets cost $6 per person.