Lady Rams ousted in 4A state quarterfinals

ARTESIA — Portales High’s volleyball squad went into Saturday’s District 4-4A and regular-season finale believing it needed to sweep Artesia and win by a certain number of points to have any chance of qualifying for Class 4A state competition this week as the No. 2 seed from the district.

Give the Lady Rams credit, though. After dropping the first two sets, they roared back to edge the Lady Bulldogs 19-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-12.

Then on Sunday, the New Mexico Activities Association rewarded PHS with an at-large berth and the No. 5 seed to the state meet. District champion Roswell Goddard was the top seed overall, while Artesia was left out of the field.

Unfortunately, the season came to a quick end on Monday when the Lady Rams (9-4) dropped a 25-17, 25-21, 25-14 quarterfinal round decision at fourth-seeded St. Pius.

Even though it looked bleak at the time, Gomez held out hope on Saturday that her squad would get a nod from the NMAA.

“We’re in a tough district with three really good teams,” she said. “It’s just unfortunate that most districts don’t really have that. We should all three be in the (state tourney).”

Junior middle hitter Kylyie Paden had 14 kills and 12 blocks against the Lady Bulldogs (8-4, 3-3). Junior libero Teagan Faust posted 21 digs, while senior setter Mattison Blakey had a team-best four aces to go with 22 assists.

In Monday’s loss, senior outside hitter Adrianna Garcia had seven kills and three blocks, while Faust posted 14 digs and senior outside hitter added 12.

Gomez said she was happy to be able to play a season, and for the chance for her team to make it to the 4A state meet.

“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to be able to do this during an uncertain time,” she said. “We played a lot of teams that have played for a long time, and we’ve basically done this in about a month.”

The Sartans (9-4) advanced to a 6 p.m. semifinal round matchup tonight at Goddard.

Clovis 3, Roswell High 0 — The Lady Wildcats, who had already clinched the District 4-5A title and an automatic berth in the Class 5A state meet, finished out the regular season on Saturday at The Rock with a 25-23, 25-21, 25-23 win over Roswell High, which had handed them their only loss in district play.

Clovis (8-4, 5-1 district) was seeded eighth in the tournament and faced a trip to top-seeded Santa Fe High on Tuesday night.

Senior Kiara Cox had nine kills for the Lady Cats against the Lady Coyotes (3-7, 2-4), while senior Tabitha Gallegos posted 10 kills, 10 assists and four aces.

“They’re a matchup problem for us because of their style of play,” CHS coach Darrel Ray said of the Lady Coyotes. “I liked the fact that we had to battle.

“Tabitha Gallegos served lights-out for us today. It was just back and forth — I think the biggest lead anyone had was we had a six-point lead in Game 2.”