Logan claims Tucumcari Invitational

Logan staked its claim as the best high-school volleyball team in the area — at least for now — by winning the Tucumcari Invitational tournament on Saturday.

The Lady Longhorns (6-1) defeated Grady/San Jon in the title game 25-7, 25-10, 25-16. Logan’s Jordan Hines was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and three other Lady Longhorns -- Karli Webb, Kesleah Shields and Harlie Roach — were voted to the all-tournament team.

Host Tucumcari (1-7) finished fourth, falling to East Mountain 25-20, 24-26, 17-25, 25-20, 11-15 in a marathon third-place match. Tucumcari’s Bryanna Arias was named to the all-tournament team. The Lady Rattlers also notched their first victory of the season, defeating Floyd 25-20, 25-18, 25-22 in the quarterfinals after advancing from Friday’s pool play.

Grady/San Jon (4-3) never led against Logan except for a brief 8-7 advantage in the third game. Logan’s crisp passing and dominant play at the net kept the Lady Bronchos off-balance much of the match.

Logan coach Robert Young welcomed the tournament crown after his team lost in the title match to Friona at the Logan Lady Longhorns Volleyball Tournament the previous weekend.

“This is a good confidence-builder for us to beat a good team like Grady,” he said. “I think we’re going in the right steps where we want to go.

“We passed the ball really well, and we served well,” he continued. “We dominated the net. Our defense was very solid most of the time. We made very few mistakes as far as positioning.”

Logan defeated East Mountain 25-15, 23-25, 25-7, 25-14 in the semifinals.

Grady/San Jon coach Rebecca Burns said she was disappointed with the title match. She said her team had looked forward to playing against Logan because they’re district rivals.

“I don’t know if they got nervous or tight, because I felt like we were ready,” Burns said. “We struggled with our blocking and our defense. I thought we settled in and began to compete a little more (during the third game). But by then, it was a little too late.”

The Lady Bronchos defeated Tucumcari 25-21, 25-10, 25-8 in the semifinals and Maxwell 25-9, 25-1, 25-18 in the quarterfinals. Grady/San Jon’s Yara Sotelo and Leah Starbuck were named to the all-tournament team.

Tucumcari received a boost to its offense when its top hitter, Jasmine Jones, was cleared to play Friday afternoon after suffering a knee injury during the previous week. Lady Rattlers coach Dena Benavidez said she will be played sparingly as the knee continues to heal.

In Tucumcari’s back-and-forth third-place match against East Mountain, the fifth game was decided by a late 5-2 run by the Timberwolves.

“My team hustled the whole game,” Benavidez said. “The reason we lost that fifth game was because of serve errors. We lost by four points; we had four service errors. We have to mentally get through those situations.”

Other teams in the tournament were Dora and Santa Fe Waldorf.

During a regular-season game Thursday at Logan, Tucumcari fell by a 25-17, 25-15, 25-9 score.