Friona takes tourney

LOGAN — Three teams from Quay County advanced to the semifinals of the annual Logan Lady Longhorn Volleyball Tournament, but it was a team from Texas that won it all Saturday.

Friona conquered Class 2A defending state champion Logan 25-14, 25-23, 18-25, 25-20 in the semifinal, then downed Grady/San Jon (2-2) in the title match 20-25, 25-16, 25-14, 25-16.

Logan (2-1) won the third-place game against Tucumcari 25-17, 25-7, 25-12. The Lady Rattlers fell to Grady/San Jon 8-25, 14-25, 17-25 during the semifinal.

Tucumcari (0-5), despite advancing during Thursday’s pool play, still was looking for its first victory of the season because the tournament’s pool-play matches don’t count in the regular-season column.

Other teams competing in the tournament were Clayton, Springer, Cimarron and Floyd.

Friona coach Bryan Masse acknowledged his team came to the tournament with built-in advantages. The Squaws arrived in Logan in midseason form after playing nearly 20 matches. Friona (22-4) also boasts seven seniors on its team.

Friona also benefited from two outside hitters — Carly Drake and Bailey Pope — who dominated at the net. But their opponents in the semifinals and finals didn’t back down.

“Logan and Grady were very scrappy and got after us,” Masse said. “We got caught a few times not ready, and that was because of their hustle on their side of the net.”

The Broncos won the first game of the title match because Grady/San Jon’s blocking -- especially by Teryn Foote — kept the Squaws off-balance.

Masse also thought his team suffered a letdown after beating Logan.

“I think we overlooked them a little bit because we knew Logan supposedly was the tough one,” he said. “But Grady seems to be every bit as good right now.”

Friona’s height advantage reasserted itself while taking the final three games against the Broncos.

“In the second and third set, our blocks were late,” Grady/San Jon coach Rebecca Burns said. “We weren’t as aggressive as the net as I wanted to be.”

Regardless, Burns said she saw encouraging signs.

“This whole week, we’ve come out and played the best we have all season,” she said. “We really fought with Friona, which was what I wanted. Our girls showed we can battle, and that’s a very positive thing we can take into next week.”

Despite the Friona loss, Logan coach Robert Young also was encouraged by what he observed.

“I thought we showed lots of improvement in some areas,” he said. “We played hard most of the time and had a lot of energy. And playing all of these teams that play different styles will be good for us. We’ll learn how to adjust to our competition down the road.

“The first game against Friona, they put up a pretty good block on us. So our hitters had to work on different things to adjust to the block. I have some really young hitters, so I’m hoping they’ll learn from this.”

Tucumcari was hampered by a knee injury Tuesday to its top hitter, Jasmine Jones. But coach Dena Benavidez took home some hopeful signs from her Lady Rattlers.

“We passed very well. We just have be able to put the ball down and score,” Benavidez said. “Another thing we did well was serve. We just need to use those opportunities.”

Tucumcari falls to Pecos

On Aug. 28, Tucumcari dropped a 19-25, 19-25, 19-25 decision Tuesday on the road at Pecos.

Jones, the Lady Rattlers’ top spiker, suffered a knee injury during the second set. She will be sidelined indefinitely until the severity of her injury is known this week.

Tucumcari’s junior varsity also fell to Pecos by a 19-25, 19-25 score.