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Portales has successful senior day

STAFF WRITER

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It was senior day for Portales High’s boys soccer and volleyball teams, and neither disappointed with the Lady Rams swept Ruidoso 25-17, 25-11, 25-17 and the boys sent NMMI home after a 2-1 win on the pitch.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Portales’ Pedro Perea, right, dribbles by a NMMI defender following an “ankle-breaking” juke move.

The Rams (13-3-1, 5-2-1 district) jumped out to a 2-0 lead and held possession for 70 minutes. Freddy Exiga scored on a cross pass from Jesus Chavez in the 18th minute and Junior Salomon headed in a cross pass, again from Chavez, in the 61st minute.

“Great job of switching the field,” Rams coach Nathan Dodge said. “I’ve preached that all season when you cross the ball you cross up the keeper. We played well. Controlled the ball.”

NMMI (5-12-2, 3-4-1) got on the board in the 70th minute with a goal from Ivan Gonzales. However, Portales held on defensively the last 10 minutes of the game to end their regular season on a high note and possibly still get a top-four seed in the postseason, which would mean a first-round bye.

“I think we’ll get a five seed,” Dodge said. “That means we’ll have a home game to start off the playoffs.”

Selection for soccer seeding will take place around 2 p.m. today.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Portales sophomore Taylee Rippee loads up for a kill during the third set of Saturday’s match against Ruidoso. Rippee finished with two of Portales’ 39 kills and the Lady Rams won in straight sets.

On the court, Portales (9-9, 3-1 district) jumped out to an early lead in all three sets and simply never allowed Ruidoso (5-13, 0-4) a chance to win a single set. The reason for the relative ease of the victory was the accuracy of Portales’ hitters, as the Lady Rams committed just seven attack errors while getting 36 total kills.

“We’ve been working at attacking and hitting the ball harder,” coach Charity Gomez said. “When you do that it forces the team to dig a really hard ball. That throws them off their game plan because they just focus on getting the ball back over the net. We hit it in spots they couldn’t get and created a lot of havoc for the other team.”

Linsday Blakey led Portales with 10 kills an no attack errors. Sky Marianito and Sarah Blaeser each had 16 assists and Zam Cox led the team with 18 digs.

The Lady Rams have their final two regular season matches on the road as they travel to Moriarty on Tuesday and then to Albuquerque to face Hope Christian Saturday.

“We’re trying to be first in district and we control our own destiny,” Gomez said. “If we can win these next two matches we have it outright. We have a week off at home where we can prepare on the championship match. That’s our goal.”

 
 
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