Historic First: East Mountain Volleyball Welcomes Statewide Field for Inaugural Home Invitational

SANDIA PARK, N.M. — The East Mountain High School volleyball program is breaking new ground this weekend as the Lady Timberwolves host the school’s first-ever home tournament at the Vista Grande Community Center.

The two-day, eight-team event begins Friday morning and features pool play before shifting into bracket play on Friday evening and concluding Saturday.

First-year varsity head coach Claire Rose, who moved up after coaching the junior varsity squad, piloted a similar tournament format for the boys’ volleyball season. Following that success, she decided to introduce the format to the girls’ side to challenge her squad against unfamiliar competition from across the state.

“We thought, well, why not do it for girls’ season, and it kind of gave us an opportunity to be intentional about teams that we don’t normally get to play,” Rose said. “We’re really excited about the people who are making the journey to us, whether it’s just from Albuquerque or from farther away, because we’re going to get to see just some cool talent from other places around the state.”

Matches kick off at 10 a.m. on Friday to accommodate traveling programs.

The tournament is split into two pools:

• Pool 1: East Mountain, Highland, Kirtland Central, and West Mesa
• Pool 2: McCurdy, Los Alamos, Del Norte, and Aztec

East Mountain opens its tournament run against Class 5A opponent West Mesa.

“I can’t remember the last time the girls played West Mesa, but I love their volleyball coaching staff,” Rose said. “They just have a great program, and obviously, kind of having our season debut with a 5A school is pretty exciting, too.”

Rose enters her debut varsity campaign with a compact roster of nine varsity players selected from more than 40 tryout participants. Rose emphasized that maintaining a tight, nine-player rotation was intentional to foster alignment and target a return to the state tournament for the first time in several years.

(Lady Timberwolves Varsity: Bella Rae Winnicki, Sonya Gonzales, Skylar Graff, Ada Hansen, Evelyn Salberg, Olivia Gonzales, Henley Hatley, Alynna Cook, Calla DiMaio)

“I just kind of wanted to protect that energy by surrounding them with a small group of girls who all want the same thing,” Rose said. “I have the focus and the determination that we are going to go to state this year… and I just feel like the group that we have is so focused and so determined. They all play together so well, and they’re playing really high-level volleyball.”

Rose credited an offseason dedicated to weight training and conditioning for building the team’s physical readiness, noting that a strong JV roster provides reliable depth if needed.

Beyond on-court results, Rose hopes the milestone event connects the community with the student-athletes.

“I not only want to put East Mountain volleyball on the map, but I want to put East Mountain sports in general on the map,” Rose said. “I want the community to know that they can come out and support these kids… our next-door neighbors, to come and support these kids because they deserve it.”

Daily admission is $10, with tickets available at the door and online through GoFan.