Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Tucumcari volleyball squad split a pair of matches over the weekend at the Lady Braves Volleyball Tournament at Santa Fe Indian School.
The Lady Rattlers’ overall record stood at 7-4. Tucumcari is ranked third in Class 3A by MaxPreps.com.
On Friday, Taos toppled the Lady Rattlers 25-18, 25-14, 25-16 during the first round of the Bronze Bracket of the tournament after pool play.
“We struggled against Taos being outsized at the net; they have a 6-foot-3 hitter that we had trouble defending,” Tucumcari coach Dana Benavidez said. “We played hard and the game was close at times, but they came over overcoming us when she as in the front row. We also struggled hitting against her.”’
Caylee Benavidez and Kyla Lopez each totaled four kills for Tucumcari. Harley McKinney had 19 serve receptions.
Taos improved to 4-3 after the match.
On Saturday, Tucumcari easily prevailed on the consolation match 25-15, 25-11, 25-8 against Pecos.
“With Pecos, we played fundamentally sound and did well ending our weekend,” coach Benavidez said. “They played well as a team and gave their all.”
Cambree Benavidez totaled a team-high 12 kills and 30 assists for the Lady Rattlers, and Lopez and July Lafferty each made seven kills. McKinney made a team-high six aces, with Alexis Ramirez adding five.
Pecos dropped to 4-6.
Tucumcari has three home matches this week against Santa Rosa on Tuesday, East Mountain on Thursday and area rival Logan on Saturday.
Santa Rosa 3, Logan 2
The Lady Lions prevailed in a back-and-forth 25-23, 15-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-10 match over Logan on Thursday at Santa Rosa.
“We just had one of those games where we didn’t play our best and weren’t at the top of our game, and Santa Rosa was,” Logan coach Glynna Strand said.
Haylie Bidegain led the Lady Longhorns with 16 kills, and Kaylee Williams added 13 kills.
Logan, ranked second in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com, fell to 7-3 overall.
Santa Rosa improved to 7-5.
San Jon 3, Des Moines 1
San Jon 3, Wagon Mound 0
The Lady Coyotes won non-district matches over Wagon Mound on Friday and over Des Moines on Saturday.
San Jon coach Bobby Kandel said his team was scheduled to play just a junior varsity match against Des Moines, but a last-minute cancellation made it a varsity game.
“We really appreciated the level of intensity they brought,” he said. “We had some really long volleys; we went almost 20 minutes into the game, and the score was only 4-2. Everyone was on their toes; they had some really good hitters, so we really had to step up our blocking and covering on defense.”
Kandel said senior Sarah Archuleta “had the game of her life. I haven’t looked at the stats, but I bet she had more kills in this game than any other.”
He also praised Perlita Ramirez for her defense during the match.
Des Moines dropped to 6-5.
Against Wagon Mound, San Jon had an easier time.
“We knew what to expect against Wagon Mound,” Kandel said. “They had gotten better, but the girls had a good time playing and challenging each other to try new hitting/setting methods. We let some kids serve who normally don’t, and Sarah started jump-serving some.”
San Jon improved to 8-4 overall. The Lady Coyotes won just three matches all of last season.
Wagon Mound fell to 1-7.