Number one all season long, the Rio Rancho High School volleyball team put an exclamation mark on the 2009 campaign by sweeping La Cueva 25-17, 25-19, 25-23, last Saturday evening in the Class 5A championship match at Santa Ana Star Center.

It was the Rams’ 16th-consecutive match victory and the sixth volleyball title for Rio Rancho, which has appeared in the last nine championship matches. The Rams (19-4) did not lose to any New Mexico teams this season, with their four losses coming to El Paso’s Coronado and Eastwood in an early season tournament in El Paso, Texas, and to The Bishops School (of La Jolla, Calif.) and Coronado again at the Nike Invitational in Phoenix.

Along the way, the Rams also dealt 4A state champ Goddard its lone loss of the season.

The Rams players and coaches celebrate another 5A crown.

None of the Rams could forget the first time they met the Bears this season. It was at La Cueva on Oct. 17 in a special “Dig Pink” fundraiser. La Cueva had won the first two games, but the Rams rallied to win the final three and claim the match.

“(Coach Toby Manzanares) definitely reminded us of that,” senior setter Taylor Calloway said. “We just got together and did it.”

This time, Calloway snagged the Rams a couple of points on quick returns and credited her passers.

Senior outside hitter Brooklyn Boughter had 10 kills in the match, seven of which came in the decisive third game, with four of those in a row. The first brought the Rams closer to the then-leading Bears, 22-19, and got the serve into Letisha Spencer’s hands.

Jayla Trombley notched the next point, and then back-to-back kills by Boughter knotted the game at 22-all.

La Cueva called a timeout and, as usually happens, got the next point and the serve.

Another Boughter kill tied the game again and a kill by Darian Mullen took the Rams to match point, 24-23. Mullen then put it away with her 22nd kill of the evening.

Boughter said she was “in the zone.

“I wanted to get it done for all the people that were disappointed last year,” she said, referring to the Rams 3-2 loss to Mayfield in last year’s championship match.

Boughter was one of the keys to this year’s run, along with Mullen, Spencer, Trombley, Calloway, Shaffer and Mac-kenzie Clark, who’d all been a part of that disappointed runner-up squad in 2008. Boughter and Mullen also played with the 2007 team, which also beat La Cueva in the championship match.

“We worked our butts off in that third game, even though we were down,” she said. “We showed a lot of heart and we played up to the end.”

“She really reached her peak this season, these last two games that we played. She did amazing — I’m so proud of her,” Calloway said.

Manzanares echoed that sentiment.

“I can’t say enough about that kid. She was a kid we really depended on all season long because she was our number-two outside hitter, but an outside hitter that had to control the ball,” he said. “She had to serve-receive in six rotations and then really get to the net and be a good terminator for us. She was really smart and real aggressive tonight: She took some high swings; she took some balls off one foot in the middle of the court, really separated the block and hit some nice balls down the line. I thought she was really creative tonight and my hat’s off to her.”

Manzanares lauded another Ram, too.

“Cassy Shaffer was money, defensively. She passed the ball extremely well, she defended; she had a great state tournament, as well as Brooklyn Boughter,” he said. “Everyone else contributed to the best of their ability. (But) those two kids stepped up their games to a whole another level.”

In the first game, the Rams and Bears stayed within a few points of each other until the game was tied at 16. Rio Rancho then went on a 9-1 run to close it out.

In the second game, the Rams used a 7-1 run to pull away from a deadlock at 6. La Cueva never got closer than four points after that and a Mullen kill soon iced it, leaving the Rams one game away from another title.

When that game was won, the players dove onto the floor, making a dog pile on their side of the net. Most had tears in their eyes as they realized the blue trophy was again theirs.

Playing only a few miles away from their campus, at the Star Center, lent “a different atmosphere,” Calloway said. “At first we didn’t feel it was at state, because we went to Johnson last year. Everyone came, so it was OK.”

Actually, it was better than OK.

“It’s a huge adrenalin rush — for all of us it’s a big deal,” Calloway said, crediting team bonding. “We are with each other 24/7 during this time.”

“I look forward to having another challenge next year,” Manzanares said, unable to forget what he was feeling when the Bears seemed poised to win the third game.

“I thought we saved our best for last and even though we allowed them to be in system. We served the middle of the court so unnecessarily,” he said. “The little girl in the different-colored jersey is their best passer and we, for the most part in game three, kept serving the ball to her.

“So we had to keep reminding them, go away … go away from ‘zone 6.’ If you go anywhere other than the middle of the court, I will be a happy man,” he added. “And late in the match, that’s what we did. So, yeah, I told this team we could save our best for last, we could play even better and at a higher level and I thought we did tonight.”

Dinks: All five championship matches pitted No. 1 vs. No. 2 seeds: also winning were Tatum (Class A), Texico (2A), Pojoaque (3A) and Goddard (4A). Texico was the only team to repeat; it was the Wolverines’ fourth title in a row.

… It was the seventh championship for Manzanares, and 11th championship match appearance; he won the title while coaching St. Pius X in 1994, a season after the Sartans lost the 3A title match to Academy.

… The Rams say goodbye to seniors Mullen, Spencer, Calloway, Shaffer, Boughter, Samantha MacNeil and CiCi Cordova; Clark and Trombley are juniors, while juniors Morgan Godbolt and Chelsea McCampbell and freshman Erika Bolling return in 2010.

... Also playing in a championship match Saturday was Kylee Berger of Rio Rancho, a senior outside hitter for the 4A runner-up St. Pius Sartans and daughter of local Allstate Insurance agent Jaylene Berger.