Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Clovis boys, Portales girls win
Clovis senior Jadan Anderson makes the return of Portales senior Sarah Blaeser's serve in the No. 1 girls matchup Monday in Portales.
Portales senior Sarah Blaeser serves to Clovis senior Jadan Anderson.
PORTALES — Even though one is 6A and one is 4A, Clovis and Portales are still area rivals.
When they play, it's always a big deal — for Clovis, because Portales teams are always tough; for Portales, because of that and because the Wildcats are the 6A giants, so when a 4A competes with and even beats them, it says a lot.
Monday, the teams battled for about five hours and split. Portales' girls beat Clovis 9-0; Clovis' boys squeaked out a 5-4 win over the Rams.
"The boys really gave Clovis a run for their money," Portales coach Ann-Marie Bucksath said. "They played well overall. I'm proud of them. We play Artesia (today), so it's another practice for a good school."
And Bucksath was obviously pleased with her girls team's sweep.
"The girls keep getting more and more consistent," she said. "I mixed up the doubles and they keep playing hard with whomever they're matched up with."
In the girls singles matches, Sarah Blaeser defeated Jadan Anderson 6-0, 6-0; Kinsey Bilberry outlasted Abby Williams 6-4, 6-4; Timberland Neece beat J'Lea Fuqua 6-0, 6-0; Zamorye Cox defeated Ryan Harmon 6-1, 6-0; Danielle Ruiz beat Andy Mendoza 6-1, 6-0; and Kelly Fraze topped Brittney Albin 6-1, 6-0.
In doubles, Blaeser and Cox took care of Anderson and Williams, 6-1, 6-2; Bilberry and Ruiz defeated Fuqua and Harmon, 6-2, 6-2; and Neece and Fraze defeated Albin and Mendoza, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 13-11.
On the boys side, Clovis toughed out the 5-4 win, which was huge for the Wildcats.
"Yeah," Clovis coach Brad Heath said. "Especially the last match because it came down to that. Portales is getting better every year, which is good, We just have to keep getting better."
In singles, Clovis' David Heath prevailed against Xavier Gutierrez, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; the Rams' Pancho Lopez defeated Colby Coiner 6-3, 6-3; Clovis' Sumito Risheson beat Geraldo Calderson, 6-2, 6-4; Portales' Zeke Aguirre survived against Tony Betts 6-4, 5-7, 11-9; Portales' Julien Tellez edged Dylan Gallegos, 6-3, 7-5; and the Rams' Tyler Underhill outlasted Brandon Heath, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8), 10-8.
In boys doubles, Betts and Coiner defeated Gutierrez and Calderon, 6-4, 6-3. Lopez and Aguirre beat Risheson and Brad Heath, 2-6, 6-2, 10-7; and Grant Palla and Brandon Heath (C) def. Tellez and Underhill (P) def. 7-5, 3-6, 6-10.
For Portales, it was nice to get a girls sweep. And nice for the boys to play so hard against a bigger school.
"Exactly," Bucksath said. "We love playing those bigger schools. It only pushes us to find our weaknesses and work on them.
"I think our biggest weakness right now is being patient on the point. We get in a hurry, we want to put the point away. Sometimes, you just need to wait a little bit."
