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Portales volleyball squad sweeps Clovis

PORTALES — The Portales Rams volleyball team had a disappointing finish on Tuesday night, as they couldn’t finish off a 2-0 lead at home against Artesia. The Rams had to quickly bounce back from that to face their archrival Clovis on Thursday, and they certainly made sure to avoid another letdown.

Portales handled the Wildcats (8-4) from start to finish, sweeping Clovis 25-16, 25-22, 25-16 to take a season sweep.

The Rams (9-4) topped Clovis in five earlier this season at Rock Staubus Gym.

“We just talked about finishing games and being a little bit stronger mentally. Especially if we’re at home, if we have somebody down 2-0, it’s pretty much unacceptable to let a match slide away like that,” Rams coach Charity Gomez said of the Artesia loss. “(Clovis is not) in our classification, but it’s always a good match for us to have, against a great team. It gives us a little bit more of a confidence boost — we have one more match before we get into districts. This is good for us.”

Clovis came out flat from the get-go, as Portales quickly went ahead 5-0. The Rams would then go on to carry leads of 8-3, 12-5, 18-6 and 23-14, on their way to an easy 25-16 first set victory.

The Wildcats, however, came out stronger in the second set. Clovis took control quickly, 7-2, prompting a Rams timeout. Portales, however, stormed out of the timeout to go ahead 16-13, as the Rams’ 14-6 run forced the Wildcats to use a timeout of their own.

The two sides battled back and forth for the remainder of the set, as Clovis cut the deficit down to 23-22. Portales, however, hung-on to take the final two points and clinch the set.

The third set, meanwhile, was essentially a repeat of the opening set, as Portales stormed out to a 15-7 lead and never looked back.

For the Wildcats, and coach Ruth Chavez, Thursday was all a part of a building process for her team.

“We had some unforced errors that started us out flat, and I think that got us behind the whole match. We did some good things, and we’re trying to change a lot of things in Clovis in three months — and it’s tough,” said Chavez, who spent 15 years as Portales head coach. “We taught them a whole new system, a whole new way of doing things. It just takes time and we gotta take the positives.”

The Wildcats will get back into District 2-6A play, where they’re off to just a 1-2 start thus far. Clovis will next host Sandia on Saturday afternoon at 2, followed by matches with La Cueva and Eldorado.

Portales, on the other hand, will next face a lower classification school in nearby powerhouse Texico (9-3). The Rams will travel to Texico on Saturday and face the Wolverines at 4, and it will be the second time in as many weeks that the Rams face off with the Wolverines, after beating Texico in two sets in last Friday’s pool play portion of the Peyton Chavez Memorial Tournament.

“It’s gonna be a battle. It’s a bunch of kids that play super-hard all the time. We’re really gonna have to be on our game to compete against them,” Gomez explained. “(It helps that) we got to see them a little bit (last week). We play them all summer, because we’re all in that same summer tour. So, we’re familiar with each other, (but) our success comes off of how we ball control.”