Portales girls take 2nd at Lovington tennis tournament

LOVINGTON — There were plenty of details in the dozens of matches played Friday and Saturday at the Wildcat Remix Tournament, but one thing was simple. Portales knows where it stands, and the jury may still be out on Clovis.

The Portales girls finished second in the six-team tournament with 4A, 5A and 6A teams, with a loss to champion St. Michael’s and wins over Lovington, Roswell, Clovis and Artesia.

It was hard for coach Ann-Marie Bucksath to single out anybody who did well, because every Portales girls player finished with the same 4-1 record.

“I felt really good. The girls played really well, they stepped up and took care of their business, singles or doubles. We mixed it up some, and they all played great.”

Portales took 4-0 wins — two singles matches, two doubles matches — against four of the five other teams in the field and lost 4-0 to St. Michael’s.

The Portales boys did not fare as well, losing four of their matches and tying Clovis in the other.

The Clovis boys finished fourth, coach Brad Heath said.

“The ninth-graders played great, Brandon Heath and Grant Palla,” Heath said. “They took three of their four matches in doubles.”

Heath also credited seniors Colby Coiner, Tony Betts and Dyllin Gallegos with a good weekend.

The girls went winless in their five games.

“We were only competing with six girls,” Heath said, "and one of our players aggravated a knee injury. We had to default a match against everybody. That made it difficult. We had great play from all of our freshman — Abby Mendoza, Ryan Harmon and Brittany Albin — and Abby Williams played well for her first match.”

The Ram teams will be back in action this weekend at the Roswell Invitational, while Clovis will be in the Santa Fe Quad.