Covis overpowers Carlsbad late to post sweep

CLOVIS — Clovis head volleyball coach Ruth Chavez had seen it, she’d seen the improvement and potential in her young team throughout the season.

Tuesday night at Rock Staubus Gymnasium, Chavez saw that improvement and potential come to some fruition as the Lady Wildcats earned their first District 4-5A victory of the season, brooming away Carlsbad, 26-24, 25-14, 25-17, Clovis’ first sweep since blanking Valencia on Sept. 7 in the Moriarty Tournament and only its sixth overall win of 2019.

“It felt good,” Clovis head coach Ruth Chavez said. “It was a different feeling than what we’ve had all year.”

“It’s a big win,” Lady Wildcats junior outside hitter Kaci Cabeldue said after recording nine kills and two digs in the winning effort. “We’ve been practicing and waiting for this moment for a really long time.”

“It’s a huge win,” Clovis junior middle blocker Kiara Cox said after notching six kills. “We’ve been struggling for quite some time, and it’s good to see that all our practice is finally showing in a game.”

Clovis, though, was losing the first set 21-16, just four points away from going down 1-0 in the match.

But the Lady Wildcats then tore off five straight points — including a Kameron Kelley ace on the second of those five — and tied it at 21.

Carlsbad went back up 22-21, Clovis tied it at 22, and the Cavegirls recorded two straight to lead 24-22, a point away from bagging the opening set.

An emphatic kill by Cabeldue brought the Lady Wildcats within a point, and a Carlsbad return hit out knotted the set at 24.

Then it was time for Cox to shine. She was kind of like the volleyball version of a baseball closer, posting two consecutive kills — an emphatic one that she slammed home and one that she dropped softly over the net — to hand Clovis a 26-24 victory.

“I felt like we all came to a common understanding that we had to get it done, get the job done,” Cox said of the Lady Wildcats’ first-set comeback.

“We noticed what we had to get done,” Cabeldue said, “and we did it.”

“In that first set I thought our hitters were a little too timid,” Chavez said. “They did a lot of back-and-forth easy stuff, which kept the set really close.”

The Lady Wildcats’ first-set rally brought momentum that enabled them to control the rest of the match. Kelley began the second set with an ace, and though Carlsbad tied it at 1, a Cabeldue kill put the ’Cats ahead for good in the set. Her point was the start of five straight for Clovis, a run finally stopped with a kill by Carlsbad’s Harmony Lopez.

Clovis stayed in command, though, winning the next two points — the second of which was a Tabatha Gallegos kill — and took an 8-2 lead that prompted Carlsbad to call a timeout.

The Cavegirls did get a point after the timeout, but Clovis then won four straight to build a 12-3 lead, a Tabatha Gallegos ace providing that 12th point. From that point on, the Lady Wildcats never led by less than seven, and they rolled on to victory. Cox was again the closer, notching back-to-back kills to finish out the set, 25-14.

Carlsbad roared to leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in the third set, but Clovis took control again, winning six straight points to build a 7-3 advantage. The Cavegirls drew as close as a point, 8-7, in the set, but no closer. Clovis won nine straight points after that to take a 17-7 lead, and was eventually up 22-12 when Carlsbad made things a bit dicey, pulling to within 22-17.

A great volley on the next point ended with Carlsbad hitting a return into the net. The next point ended when the Cavegirls couldn’t return a shot, giving Clovis a 24-17 advantage. And a Hannah Gallegos ace ended the match.

“I think they came back in (sets) 2 and 3 and just were very aggressive,” Chavez said. “And when you’re aggressive, you’re going to do good things. So I think we forced a lot of errors because we were aggressive at the net.”

The Lady Wildcats showed that they could shake off early adversity and transform it into victory.

“Yeah, they did,” Chavez said. “We’ve been working on the ability to finish a game and the ability to win a game.”

Joining Cabeldue and Cox among Clovis’ big contributors was Kelley, who had six kills, five digs and two aces.

Camryn Barros added 10 digs for the Lady Wildcats. Janelle Macias had eight digs and two aces.

Hannah Gallegos supplied seven digs and two aces. Tabatha Gallegos added four digs, two kills and an ace. Cady Ratledge had an ace, and Milia Ratledge had two kills.