CHS volleyball concludes season

Clovis' volleyball team put up a good fight, but the Lady Wildcats' season likely ended with Thursday night's 3-1 loss at Hobbs.

Clovis won the first set of Thursday's District 4-5A semifinal match before the Lady Eagles took control and won 22-25, 25-7, 25-13, 25-18.

The loss dropped Clovis to 6-14, and head coach Ruth Chavez wasn't expecting a state tournament bid to be coming afterward. She was impressed with her young team's evolution from August to November.

"We showed improvement. Our game definitely improved," Chavez said. "We came a long way throughout the season, through a lot of adversity and a lot of different things. But we improved, which was our goal. We're better tonight than when we started."

Thursday's 25-22 start seemed to indicate that Clovis had a chance to move on and play Roswell in Saturday's district championship before things kind of unraveled.

"We played well that first set and took that first set from them," Chavez said. "It was the first time we took a set from them all season. But then we got into some errors. But we did a lot of good things."

Clovis had five aces, with two for Mikyla Harkley and one each for Camryn Barros, Megan Emerich and Tabatha Gallegos.

The Lady Wildcats amassed 41 digs, led by Gallegos with 11, Barros with nine, Kameron Kelley with five and Harkley and Macias with four each.

Gallegos had a team-high seven assists, followed by Kelley with four.

Antanishwa Molett led Clovis with three kills. Gallegos, Kelley, Maddison Flygare and Harkley had two kills each, with Barros adding one kill.

Tuesday night

Clovis earned its way into the semifinal with Tuesday's quarterfinal sweep of Carlsbad - 25-19, 25-23, 25-18.

It was Carlsbad jumping ahead early, though, taking a 2-0 advantage in the opening set. The Lady Wildcats, in fact, didn't take their first lead until 10-9.

There were nine different ties in the first set, 17 different one-point leads. The ninth tie was followed by the 17th one-point advantage when a good volley ended with Carlsbad hitting into the net to put Clovis up 17-16.

The Lady Wildcats finally took their first two-point lead of the night, starting with a Molett serve and ending with a Harkley kill. A Kelley kill gave the Lady Wildcats a 19-16 edge, and they led 21-16 before Carlsbad finally won another point.

After Carlsbad won its last point, the score was 23-19. But Clovis won the next two and grabbed a 1-0 set lead.

Carlsbad won the first point of the next set, which proved to be another close one. The set didn't see its first two-point advantage until Clovis went up 9-7. The Lady Wildcats never led by more than three in the set, and that margin was rare. There were 21 one-point differences, 16 ties.

Holding one of those one-point differences, 23-22, Clovis advanced to set point on a Gallegos ace. Carlsbad won the next point, but hit into the net on the point after, handing Clovis a 25-23 victory and a 2-0 set lead.

It was a hard-earned 2-0 lead, though.

"I think it was our own errors," Flygare said. "Once we started to play like we know how to play, our game improved."

"I thought we let it go back and forth too much, just trying to get on a run," Chavez said. "But we got control. I felt like we won the passing and the serving games tonight. We served well, we passed well, and we were able to run more offense than they were."

The third set was a bit different than the previous two, as Clovis jumped out to 3-0 and 7-1 leads. Carlsbad managed to close to within a point, 8-7, but Clovis won the next three points - the third a Macias ace - and the Cavegirls never drew closer than two points again. At one of those two-point junctures (16-14), a Kelley kill put the Lady Wildcats up by three and started a run of four straight points won by them.

They were on their way to a 25-18 victory and the sweep, punctuated when Flygare pounded the match-ending kill. Clovis had seemed to play with much more confidence in the third set.

"We just adjusted a few little things," Chavez said, "and they did their assignments, the things they're supposed to do, well. So if they're in the spots they're supposed to be, they'll play well."

Flygare had a block to go with her 12 kills. Harkley and Kelley had seven kills apiece, Molett six kills, Brooklyn Hatley five and Gallegos four.

Harkley and Megan Emerich recorded three aces each, Macias and Gallegos two each, Kelley one.

Kelley had 11 of the Lady Wildcats' 42 digs, followed by Barros with eight, Macias with six, Harkley and Emerich with five apiece, Molett with four, Gallegos two and Hatley one.

Gallegos notched a team-best 18 assists, with Kelley adding 14 assists.

Looking ahead

Clovis will lose five seniors - Emerich, Allison Flygare, Maddison Flygare, Brooklyn Hatley and Molett. Everyone else is expected to return.

"We have a good group coming back," Chavez said. "A young group this year, but they'll be a year older next year. And we have good kids coming up - we have some good players on our jayvee and we have some good players coming out of our freshman class. So now we just get back to work in the offseason and try to get better so we can get to the state tournament next year, that's our goal."