Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
San Jon’s volleyball team dropped its match 11-25, 15-25, 25-22, 15-25 on Saturday to a taller Roy-Mosquero squad, but the Lady Coyotes’ coach saw encouraging signs with his team.
Sarah Archuleta — San Jon’s only senior — led the team with four kills, and teammate Addie Lafferty added three. Dakota Fisher made six assists and served 12 points during the match.
The non-district matchup at San Jon was the season opener for both teams.
San Jon only has eight varsity players on its roster, and only six suited up Saturday.
Meanwhile, first-year Lady Coyotes coach Bobby Kandel said Roy-Mosquero brought 18 players.
“They had a ton of girls on the bench, and a bunch of them were 5-foot-8 or bigger,” he said. “They were getting elbows way above the net. A lot of them are from that basketball team that won the state championship. They have a lot of potential there.”
Despite the height disadvantage, Kandel said his team had several long rallies agains the Pirates.
“That was good to see, because on defense that’s where we had struggled in practice,” he said.
Kandel said he also set a team goal of an 80% serving average. He said his players failed to meet that goal during the first set, but exceeded it later in the match.
He also said his players showed a good balance of having fun when they scored but also taking the game seriously when the situation required it.
San Jon managed to get one of two air conditioning units in its gymnasium operating in time for Saturday’s match, keeping the temperature tolerable. The units broke down several weeks before, leading to sweaty practices for the Lady Coyotes.