Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff report
ELIDA — The Elida Lady Tigers have dominated New Mexico small-school volleyball for a number of years, but they got a bit of a battle from Grady in Friday’s District 4-1A tournament before subduing the Lady Bronchos 25-15, 25-13, 25-15.
Elida, the five-time defending state champion — including all four years of Class B from 2010-13 — is expected to be the No. 1 seed when the Class 1A field is announced on Sunday in Albuquerque.
“Both teams had a lot of big plays and battled all night,” Lady Tigers coach Darrell Chenault said. “By the play on the court, you wouldn’t think the score was the way it was.”
Grady coach Tammy Northcutt, whose squad got eight kills from Yara Sotelo and seven from Sage Starbuck, was happy with the play by the Lady Bronchos (16-6).
“They’re good, but my girls played hard,” she said. “We probably got more touches on the ball tonight than any team Elida’s played.”
District 4-6A: At Carlsbad, fourth-seeded Clovis High’s front line turned the intensity meter up a notch on Thursday in a 27-25, 25-10, 21-25, 25-20 semifinal win over the second-seeded Cavegirls.
Compared to its five-set defeats in the previous two meetings, the Lady Wildcats (6-16) were more effective putting down quick strikes at the net by the Cavegirls (5-16).
“Last time, they killed us with the quick attack in the middle,” Clovis coach Gabe Apodaca said. “We were able to defend that a lot better (Thursday). We also worked on trying to speed up our game, especially getting our outsides going with our middles flying a little bit.”
Clovis senior middle hitter Jaren Piepkorn had 12 kills, seven digs and one block. Sophomores Lexi Cole, Makinzie Johnson and Mimi Coleman had nine kills apiece.
Clovis (6-16) moves on to today’s 6 p.m. championship at top-seeded Hobbs (10-10).
District 4-4A: At Portales, the Lady Rams made sure that retiring coach Ruth Chavez’ final match at the RAC was a memorable one as they swept Ruidoso 25-13, 25-19, 25-20 in Thursday’s District 4-4A tourney final.
Portales (12-9) enters the Class 4A state tournament on a roll, with wins in eight of its last nine matches, including a sweep over Ruidoso (12-9) last week. Nothing was different as the Lady Rams were in complete control of the match from the beginning.
Sheraya Cox notched seven blocks, four kills and one ace.
In today’s tourney finals:
District 4-3A: Texico (19-1) hosts Eunice (19-4) in a 2 p.m. clash. The Lady Wolverines have won 15 consecutive matches, all by sweep, since their only loss, a 3-0 setback to Class 4A Sandia Prep.
Texico’s only other set losses came in a 3-2 win over Class 6A Eldorado.
District 6-2A: At Melrose, the Lady Buffs will look to make it three out of four this season over second-seeded Logan in their 6 p.m. final. The Lady Buffs (17-3) have won five of their last six overall, and captured the regular-season district title over the Lady Longhorns (17-4) by winning both in-district matchups.
