Lady Longhorns steamroll tourney

LOGAN - The Lady Longhorns steamrolled through their season-opening, eight-team Logan Invitational volleyball tournament, including a 25-20, 25-11, 25-9 victory over Springer in the championship match Saturday.

Tucumcari, in a gritty performance, finished third with a 2-1 record despite losing a key player to an injury during the opening round Thursday. The Lady Rattlers, losing only to Springer in the semifinals, secured a trophy with 25-23, 25-12, 17-25, 25-23 win over Grady in the third-place match.

In the title match, Rilee Nials led Logan's multi-pronged attack with nine kills, while Natalie Bongers added five.

"We looked pretty good for our first matches of the season," Logan coach Robert Young said. "Springer obviously was the best team we played, and we had to get our game up. Our serving may have been a little up-and-down, and I think we can block better. Other than that, I didn't see much to complain about."

The Red Devils surged to a 13-10 lead in the opening set against Logan. Six-foot-tall eighth-grader Brenna Duran had four kills during Springer's rally.

The Lady Longhorns responded with a 7-1 scoring run - powered by two aces and two kills by Reece Goldston - to take the lead for good.

After losing that opening set, Springer appeared deflated. Logan stormed to double-digit leads in the second and third games, never leaving the match's outcome in doubt.

"I think they got frustrated because we handled almost everything they threw at us," Young said. "I watched them play Tucumcari, and I noticed they liked to tip and push the ball deep. We were ready for that. There have been other teams that have got us that way, so I reminded our players of that."

"We've got a young, young team," Springer coach Ashley DeHerrera said of her team's collapse against Logan. "I think it was a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights (situation). We didn't transition well with Logan. It's something we have to adjust to, but we're learning."

Logan had six players register kills during the Springer match, and the spread-the-wealth approach wasn't an accident.

"It's by design," Young said. "We practice like that every day. Teams we play later on, we have to have a lot of variety. You have to take a risk like that, but we think it will pay off down the road."

After winning its pool Thursday, Logan downed Elida 25-8, 25-8, 25-12 in its first-round match.

In the semifinal Saturday, Logan dispatched of Grady 25-14, 25-4, 25-13.

The Lady Longhorns also earned the sportsmanship honor during the tournament.

Amber Owen led Tucumcari with 23 kills during its victory Saturday over Grady - including five during a critical 11-2 rally in the fourth and deciding game - in the third-place match.

The Lady Rattlers lost one of its setters, Harley McKinney, to a knee injury during the first day of the tournament. That necessitated freshman setter Caylee Benavidez to essentially double down on her efforts.

"Caylee did a great job setting everything up for us, and we had to adjust our lineup a little bit," Tucumcari coach Dana Benavidez said. "We were down some players,, and we had to fight hard to get to third place.

"Our juniors, Anique Montano and Alexus Lafferty, played phenomenal during the tournament. And Amber Owen got kills when we needed them."

Benavidez made 32 assists, Lafferty made 17 digs and Madison Dysart had four aces during the Grady match.

Tucumcari lost to Springer 23-25, 25-19, 21-25, 20-25 during the Saturday semifinal. After the Lady Rattlers won in pool play Thursday, it defeated Elida 25-22, 25-20, 25-13. Owen totaled nine kills during the match, with Lafferty and Alexis Ramirez both serving seven aces. Benavidez made 20 assists.