Lady Cats edge Lovington in five sets

CLOVIS — Clovis High’s volleyball team was pressed in Thursday’s matchup against winless Lovington at Rock Staubus Gym. In fact, Lady Wildcats coach Darrel Ray couldn’t find positives other than his team pulled out a victory.

Clovis and Lovington took turns building a little momentum, then giving it up again before the Lady Cats dominated Game 5 to nail down a 25-21, 23-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-9 win.

“We didn’t practice well this morning and we didn’t play well tonight,” said Ray, whose squad routinely has its practices before the start of the school day. “I can’t say we had one player who played at their expectation level.”

The one person he said probably did that was junior Marissa Lopez. A defensive specialist brought up from the junior varsity to fill in with senior libero Hannah Gallegos out due to COVID-19 protocols, Ray said Lopez played capably in one of her first extended varsity outings.

“Mari played about her normal game,” Ray said. “There’s a discipline to the way we try to do things. It looked like everybody was waiting for someone else to do their job.”

Lopez, who was credited with 25 digs, had been summoned to the varsity for a tournament at Moriarty early this month, and said she’s gotten relatively comfortable at the higher level.

“I just have a little more adjustment, but I’m going to learn from it,” she said.

The Lady Cats hope to get Gallegos back in time for Saturday’s Peyton Chavez Invitational at Portales. In the meantime, they’ll look to Lopez to fill in.

She acknowledged it probably wasn’t the best overall outing of the season for the Lady Cats.

“I think we lacked a lot of communication (on the court),” she said of Thursday’s contest. “At the end, we pulled through and started playing better.”

The first set was tight. The Lady Cats (3-7) seemed to finally get a handle on it when they opened a 19-15 lead on one of a team-high four aces by sophomore defensive specialist Trinity Clemmons, but they still had a tough time finishing it.

Clovis had a 21-15 advantage in Game 2, but couldn’t hold on. Clemmons’ ace had the Lady Cats up 23-20, but Lovington (0-8) got a tip-kill and a service ace from senior Rylee Dunlap to steal the set. The Lady Cats pulled away late in the fourth set, getting two kills from senior outside hitter Mili Ratledge, including one on set point, to cap a 4-0 run.

Finally, CHS never trailed in Game 5, pulling away from two early ties and closing it out on Ratledge’s tip-kill on match point.

Ratledge and senior outside hitter Lucy Shreves each had 11 kills for the Lady Cats, and Shreves added 15 digs and three aces. For Lovington, senior outside hitters Alexa Bell and Amber Borunda collected 11 and 10 kills, respectively, and Dunlap contributed two blocks and six aces.

Clovis returns to action on Tuesday with a 6:30 p.m. home tilt against Roswell Goddard.

Goddard 3, Clovis 0 (Tuesday) — At Roswell, the Lady Rockets held on for a Game 2 win, then dominated the third set to improve to 4-2 for the season.

Shreves and sophomore middle blocker Kailyn Jefferson Shreves each had six kills for the Lady Cats. Jefferson added two blocks while Shreves compiled nine digs.

Ray said his team had its hands full with Lady Rockets 6-foot junior middle blocker Sophia Valdez.

“In both of our last two matches (including a five-set loss to Roswell High on Sept. 11 in the Zia Classic at Roswell), they had the one big stud,” Ray said. “We dug ourselves a hole, but we kind of recouped a bit.”

Ray said Jefferson is making steady improvement for the Lady Cats on the front row.

“I’m tickled to death with her progress,” he said.