Lady Rams look to reload, not rebuild this season

STAFF WRITER

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For the first time in 15 years, the Portales Lady Rams volleyball team will not have Ruth Chavez as the head coach. Instead, that responsibility now goes to Charity Gomez, who spent the last two seasons as the junior varsity coach. Fortunately for Gomez, her team is already comfortable with her coaching style.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Portales junior Lindsay Blakey works on her bumping and setting during Friday’s practice at the Portales Athletic Center. Blakey is one of the returning varisty starters under new head coach Charity Gomez.

“I know the girls,” Gomez said. “I don’t feel like personnel-wise they have to learn my personality or learn what I’m about. That’s positive. They just work hard. They go all-out every time. If I run a defensive drill, they go as hard as they can. I have not had any resistance, which is awesome. It’s refreshing to come into a new program and not have that as a new coach. They do everything I want them to do. They leave every practice drenched with sweat without me having to say ‘Let’s go harder.’”

Last season the Lady Rams finished 13-10 and won the Class 4-4A championship before losing in the state quarterfinals to Hope Christian. Six players from that team graduated so Gomez has a lot of positions to fill.

“I think the challenge is that while we have lots of juniors and seniors, they don’t have a lot of varsity experience,” Gomez said. “The pins (outside hitters) are all new to varsity. So them getting experience out there and learning what to do is something that they’ll learn playing matches. I can tell them in practice but until they do that in a match they won’t know how to get kills or keep the ball in play. Once they do that, I think we’ll be very competitive.”

One of the returning starters for the Lady Rams is junior libero (defensive specialist) Zamorye Cox. She’s happy with the work her team has put in this summer.

“So far we’ve worked a lot of ball control,” Cox said. “That’s going to be our specialty. A lot of passing and just making the best ball that we can and not being out of control.”

First up for the Lady Rams will be Roswell, who finished last year 20-3 before losing in the Class 5A semifinals to Centennial. Just like Chavez, Gomez wanted a tough non-district schedule to prepare her team for a title run as the Lady Rams will also play Goddard and Artesia.

“Roswell, Goddard and Artesia are all quality programs that have lots of success,” Gomez said. “They play volleyball well and are trained well. We played them in the summer and it was very competitive. Those are great games for us to start the season with. They’re all in bigger classes.”

Despite Roswell sweeping Portales last year, Cox isn’t worried because the Lady Rams found some success against the Lady Coyotes this summer.

“In the summer we had good competition with them,” Cox said. “We beat them twice. It was a first to 25 (points). We split the games but we had more points than them.”

For Gomez, the proximity of the higher class schools is an added bonus for their non-district schedule.

“The beautiful thing is these schools are so close,” Gomez said. “We don’t have to go far to play good competition. These teams all have history and have won state championships. We feel like if we come out and are competitive against them we start out the season on a high note. I can make adjustments in practice on what I feel like we need to get better at when (district play) begins.”

While the outside hitters are all new to the team, Gomez believes her middle hitters will be one of the strengths of the team as it will be anchored by returning junior Lindsay Blakey and senior Centennial transfer Falyn Dixson.

“Lindsay and Falyn are two very strong middles. To have (Dixson) as an addition and to have that experience is really good for us.”

While not starters last season, Gomez did add two more players she has high hopes for this year.

“Taryn Kizer also has some varsity experience,” Gomez said. “And Sky Marianito is so solid. I can tell her to hit the ball to a certain position (on the court) and she’ll do it.”

Blakey said she’s looking forward to the Roswell game but wants to see how the team compares to the elite teams in Class 4A.

“I’m looking forward to Hope Christian,” Blakey said.” We won’t get to play (defending state champion) Sandia Prep until State but I want that game, too.”

The Roswell match is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the Ram Athletic Center on Aug. 25, but before then the Lady Rams will travel to Clovis for a preseason scrimmage on Aug. 20.