Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
ROSWELL — The Portales High tennis teams had a long Saturday at New Mexico Military Institute, and suffice it to say the girls team made its mark.
The Ram girls lost just three matches on the day, beating NMMI 7-2 and Moriarty 8-1 in a District 3/4-1A/4A round-robin, and two of those were 8-5 defaults called when Portales clinched the victories.
"I feel really good about today," Portales coach Ann-Marie Bucksath said. "The kids came out and swung hard. Sarah Blaeser had an amazing day. Zamorye (Cox)'s getting back to being herself after being out a year."
The only flight Portales' girls lost without a default involved came against NMMI, with JinXiu Dong and Flor Tescano coming back to win 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.
The boys split their matches on the day, with NMMI cruising to a 9-0 victory and Portales whipping Moriarty 7-2.
"Julian Tellez had a great match against NMMI, he got five games off of his opponent," Bucksath said. "He kept swinging, and it was a great match to watch. Brett Horton, he's coming along. His confidence is building every match. The more confidence he gets, the stronger his ground strokes are getting."
Horton swept Moriarty's Andreas Chavez in No. 6 singles, then teamed up with Tyler Underhill for a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Chavez and Daniel Dolce.
Portales' tennis district is about as big as it gets geographically, stretching from Portales to Las Cruces to Albuquerque to Silver City. To cut down on travel, the district is doing two pairs of round-robin tournaments with the No. 1 teams from each slated to face each other for the district title.
Portales, NMMI and Moriarty met in Roswell this weekend for their round-robin. The other was supposed to also fall this weekend, but weather interfered with the round-robin between Hope Christian, Silver and Mesilla Valley. Bucksath is hopeful it gets made up next weekend. Portales stands No. 1 on its side for girls and No. 2 for boys.
Both Portales teams are in action 3 p.m. Tuesday at home against NMMI.
