Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff photo: Matthew Asher Portales’ Lindsay Blakey, 8, and Janae Hale go for a block in the first set of Thursday’s semifinal match against Moriarty. The Lady Pintos won in four sets.
STAFF WRITER
The Portales Lady Rams will not be the defending district volleyball champions this year as their run at the district title ended Thursday night at home in the Class 4-4A semifinal contest that saw the Moriarty Lady Pintos win in four sets 24-26, 25-11, 25-20, 25-14.
Staff photo: Matthew Asher
Portales’ Lindsay Blakey, 8, and Janae Hale go for a block in the first set of Thursday’s semifinal match against Moriarty. The Lady Pintos won in four sets.
Portales (10-11) never looked comfortable during the match as they constantly dealt with mistimed set plays which lead to botched spike opportunities.
Moriarty (16-6) jumped out to a five-point lead in the first set which forced Portales to play from behind nearly the entire time.
The Lady Rams tied the first set at 23 and thanks to a well-time diving dig by Sky Marianito, were able to take the first set 26-24.
That should have gave the Lady Rams momentum heading into the second set, but Moriarty jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second set and 7-1 in the third set.
“We just came in knowing we had to fight and to believe we could win,” Moriarty coach Kim Bell said. “Portales is a good team. We’ve played them a few times already. Last time we played them at home we lost. Our girls were motivated to show how good they were and to play for a chance at the title.”
In the fourth set, Portales finally took its first lead since winning set 1 with a 2-1 lead. It wouldn’t last, as more of the same continued as serves that normally fall went out of bounds and easy kill chances were wasted when the ball struck the net.
“We just didn’t run our game plan,” Portales coach Charity Gomez said. “We didn’t pass well enough to do it. Nobody really showed up to play the way we normally play. All week in practice we focused on ending the point, ending the point, ending the point and we just did not get it done. That’s all I can say.”
With the Lady Rams now out of the district tournament, they will wait and see what seed for the Class 4A state tournament later this month.
