Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Tucumcari's Caylee Benavidez sets the ball while teammates Kylie'Ann Rincones (8) and July Lafferty (20) watch during a match against Estancia last week. Benavidez averaged almost 30 sets a match during two victories last week.
The Tucumcari High School girls volleyball continued to roll, earning three-set victories over Pecos and Estancia last week.
The two wins improved the Lady Rattlers' record to 12-4 overall, and they again were ranked seventh in Class 3A by MaxPreps.com. Tucumcari has won seven of its last nine matches.
On Saturday, Tucumcari traveled to Pecos and prevailed 25-23, 25-14, 27-25.
Cambree Benavidez led the Lady Rattlers with 13 kills, and Haisley Huffman added nine. Caylee Benavidez totaled 28 assists.
"We played a great game," Tucumcari coach Dana Benavidez said. "We played smooth and eliminated unforced errors to get a three-set win."
Coach Benavidez noted her team's efforts to clean up its serving woes appeared to be paying off. Alexus Lafferty made five aces, Kylie'Ann Rincones was error-free on her serve attempts, and no player had more than one serving error during the match.
The Lady Panthers fell to 2-11 overall.
At home during a 25-14, 25-13, 25-23 victory against Estancia on Sept. 27, Tucumcari dominated offensively.
The Lady Rattlers registered 32 kills to the Bears' seven, with Huffman leading her team with nine and Cambree Benavidez adding seven.
Coach Benavidez said her team "played really smooth and under control," especially with Caylee at the setter role and totaling 30 assists.
"Caylee set phenomenally; I was really proud of her," she said. "We controlled the ball and got it right to our hitters. All of our hitters hit really well."
About the only statistic blemish for the Lady Rattlers was 14 service errors, including six in the final set that made it closer than it should have.
After the match, Tucumcari was averaging 87% in its serving average this season, which was too low for coach Benavidez's satisfaction.
"We want to serve at 93% ... 95% would be even better. But I know we had too many in that last set," she said. "We have to get the serve over during key points. We're going to work on that. We have too much inconsistency."
Tucumcari went on scoring runs of 6-0, 7-0 and 8-0 during the match to seize control.
In addition to its offensive woes, Estancia (3-8) committed four rotation errors during the match.
The Lady Rattlers are scheduled to play a non-district match at Clayton (4-7) on at 3 p.m. Saturday. After that, Tucumcari will begin its district schedule.
Logan 3, Clovis Christian 0
Logan began its district schedule with a dominating 25-16, 25-6, 25-13 victory Saturday at Clovis Christian.
Logan improved to 8-5 overall. After a slow start, the Lady Longhorns have won four in a row. They host district foe Grady (8-5) on Thursday.
Clovis Christian fell to 1-6.
