Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES — Portales High’s volleyball team made relatively short work of Carlsbad on Thursday night.
After getting trounced in the first two sets, the Cavegirls came alive a bit, but it was too little, too late as the Lady Rams cruised to a 25-10, 25-5, 25-22 victory at the Ram Athletic Center.
Senior middle blocker Kylyie Paden had 14 kills on a night when the Cavegirls (4-6) didn’t put up much of a challenge most of the way. Senior Riley Shillings had 18 assists.
Despite the lopsided result, PHS coach Jacki Bailey said the Cavegirls aren’t without talent.
“They have some girls that can really hit the ball,” she said. “But we just moved really well and didn’t let them get going.”
Bailey dismissed the notion that the Lady Rams (7-2) might have had a bit of a letdown in Game 3.
“They had a hard time maintaining their energy and focus,” she said of her contingent. “We just had a few more errors in that game.”
Portales is now off until a week from Saturday when they host the Peyton Chavez Invitational at the RAC. It’s an eight-team event, with teams broken into four-team brackets.
Bailey said the idea is to keep teams from playing squads they will face two or more times during the season. Thus, the Lady Rams and Ruidoso are bracketed with District 4-2A members Moriarty and Pojoaque, while Clovis and Texico will be pared with Taos and Espanola Valley, also 4-2A members.
Saturday’s schedule has Portales playing Moriarty at 11 a.m. and Pojoaque at 2 p.m., Clovis facing Espanola Valley at 12:30 p.m. and Taos at 3:30 p.m., and Texico flipping opponents with the Lady Wildcats — Taos at 12:30 p.m. and Espanola at 3:30 p.m.
Portales 3, Ruidoso 0 (Tuesday) — At Ruidoso, the Lady Rams had little trouble picking up a 25-16, 25-12, 25-8 over the winless Lady Warriors (0-6) behind 12 kills and two blocks from Paden. Senior libero Teagan Faust added 10 digs.
“The thing I was happiest with was each game we played better,” Bailey said. “It was nice to see us play consistently better.”
