Texico passes tourney tuneup with ease

TEXICO — Texico freshman Bryn Mayfield provided the ammo. Junior Lori Richardson pulled the trigger. And a wounded Santa Rosa team hobbled out of Texico without a win in Thursday’s volleyball match.

Nothing unusual, just another night at the net for the Texico Lady Spikers, who have already clinched the District 6-2A volleyball regular-season title.

Mayfield had 21 assists, including most of Richardson’s 18 kills, as the Lady Spikers swept Santa Rosa 25-8, 28-26, 25-12.

“They started clicking,” Littlejohn said. “It’s one of those things where if the other team’s not stopping you, don’t stop yourselves.”

Richardson knocked down five of Texico’s final seven points in the first game as the Lady Spikers (17-3, 6-0) went on a 13-1 run to finish the win.

The Lions (10-9, 2-3) struggled early in the first game, sending their first three serves into the net.

“That’s just normally not the way we do it,” Santa Rosa coach Johnnie Cain said. “I don’t know if we were just tight because we were playing Texico or what.”

While the Lady Spikers were almost automatic in passing the ball up to Mayfield so she could make the set, the Lions had difficulties getting the ball to their setter, senior Loretta Sanchez, especially in the first game. Of her 13 assists, only two came in the first game.

“They hit it, we get the ball up and then we make some silly pass or try to touch it over,” Cain said.

Littlejohn attributed some of that to his team’s passing.

“Ashley Littlejohn both did a real good job back there and really got them on their heels and really gave us easier balls to pass and serve and hit back at them,” he said.

The Lions came back in the second game from an early 7-3 deficit to tie the game at 10 thanks to a 6-1 run when Richardson was on the backline and not up front to take the kill shot. The two teams traded points all the way to a 26-25 Santa Rosa lead.

“Second game I thought we had it won,” Cain said. “We had a couple of breaks that didn’t go our way and we lost.”

Mayfield then connected with Richardson on two straight kills and Santa Rosa couldn’t return the subsequent serve for the Lady Spiker win.

Texico took control in the third game early with a 7-3 run and never let the Lions to within four points in 25-12 clincher.

“We haven’t been able to come out, drop a little bit, and then come back up and I feel we did that tonight,” Littlejohn said.