Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Portales girls, Goddard boys each take 6-3 wins
ROSWELL — Portales and Goddard had a long day of tennis Tuesday, with eight of their 18 matches going three sets.
By the time the last volley was made, each team went home with a 6-3 victory - Portales winning in girls play, Goddard claiming boys play.
The Portales girls improved to 9-4 on the season thanks in part to sweeping all three doubles matches from the Rockets.
"It gave them a real sense of relief," Portales coach Ann-Marie Bucksath said of winning those first three matches. "We played out the sets instead of doing super tiebreakers, so it was good to practice for endurance going into distirct. It taught us a lot. We have to close those out every time."
Sarah Blaeser, Danielle Ruiz and Taryn Wood all went 2-0 on the day for Portales. Blaeser defeated Lizzie Latimer 6-1, 6-1 in No. 1 singles, then teamed up with Zamorye Cox to pull a 6-4, 6-1 win over Latimer and Tati Villa. Ruiz beat Alli Lara in three sets in No. 5 singles, while Taryn Wood blanked Reagan Crenshaw in No. 6 singles before they teamed up in No. 3 singles to beat Crenshaw and Rae Jones.
Kinsey Bilberry and Kelly Fraze won Portales' other doubles match, rallying after a 6-3 first-set loss to beat Lara and Lilli DeGroot.
In boys competition, the Rockets took two of the three doubles filghts and four of the six singles matches. Pancho Lopez and Zeke Aguirre accounted for all three Portales wins, including their No. 2 doubles win over Ben Grief and Justus Janway. Lopez beat Jackson Hicks in three sets in No. 2 singles, while Aguirre used a 7-4 third-set tiebreaker to beat Grief. Aguirre had lost the first set 6-0. Bucksath said although it didn't tip the scales in the team scores, that match still sent a message.
"It showed everybody that no matter what, the match isn't over," Bucksath said. "You regroup, take a deep breath and fight."
The Portales boys fell to 5-5 on the season.
Portales returns to Roswell Saturday for a district round-robin match. The round-robin technically will begin Friday with New Mexico Military Institute facing Moriarty, and each team will face Portales on Saturday — Moriarty at 10 a.m. and NMMI at 2 p.m.
