Portales seeded eighth in 4A volleyball field

PORTALES — Portales High’s volleyball team wasn’t able to accomplish what it set out to do on Saturday — finish second in District 4-4A standings.

Artesia (14-9, 4-2 district) claimed that honor with a 25-23, 25-19, 25-19 victory over the Lady Rams at the Ram Athletic Center.

On Sunday, PHS learned it will be the eighth seed in this week’s 12-team Class 4A state tourney. The Lady Rams are slated to host ninth-seeded Albuquerque Academy in a 6 p.m. single-elimination play-in match on Tuesday at the RAC.

Tuesday’s four play-in winners will join the top four seeds for double-elimination competition on Friday, with single-elimination semifinals and the championship set for Saturday. With a win, PHS would take on top-seeded Hope Christian in an 8 p.m. start on Friday at Rio Rancho Event Center.

Also representing the area at state will be Melrose in Class 1A and Texico in Class 2A.

The defending 1A champion Lady Buffs (20-1), who saw their perfect season end on Saturday at District 6-1A rival Logan, nonetheless earned the No. 1 seed and are slated to play at 10 a.m. on Friday at Rio Rancho H.S. They await the winner of Tuesday’s 8-9 matchup between Cimarron and Pine Hill.

In 2A, Texico (17-6, 4-2) is seeded behind Tularosa. The Lady Wolverines’ first outing is set for 2 p.m. Friday at Cleveland H.S. in Rio Rancho against either 10th-seeded Mescalero or No. 7 Tatum, who met on Tuesday night at Tatum.

Senior middle hitter Kylyie Paden led Portales (16-7, 3-3) against Artesia with seven kills, five blocks and three aces. Senior middle Adrian Garcia had six kills and two blocks, while senior libero Teagan Faust notched three aces and 11 digs.

Lady Rams coach Jacki Bailey gave credit to the opposition.

“Artesia came in with a very aggressive plan to serve tough and make it hard for us to run our offense,” she said. “We didn’t serve-receive very well today.

“We took some hits this last couple of weeks, but we were playing some top-level competition. It really has prepared us for what we’re going to see at state.”

Meantime, the Lady Bulldogs earned the No. 7 seed and will host 10th-seeded St. Pius in a 6 p.m. play-in match on Tuesday.

CHS, PHS compete in state cross country meets — Portales High junior Michael Riess finished ninth in Class 4A boys competition with a 5K time of 16 minutes, 57.25 seconds on Saturday, highlighting area performances in state cross country competition hosted by Albuquerque Academy.

In general, it was a rough day for PHS, as well as Clovis High in Class 5A.

CHS boys and girls were both 13th out of 15 full teams at the 5A level. Freshman Samuel Fuentes led the Wildcats with a 5K time of 18:03.23, good for 40th place, while freshman Kira Tree had the Lady Wildcats’ top showing, coming in 54th in 23:36.74.

Volcano Vista swept both 5A teams titles. Individual winners were Steven West of Sandia for the boys (16:00.16) and Ellary Battle of Alamogordo for the girls (18:53.47).

In 4A, both PHS squads were 15th, with 17 full teams competing for the boys and 16 for the girls. Los Alamos ran away with both team titles, with Hope Christian’s Rendon Kuykendall the individual boys medalist and Delaney Ulrich of Los Alamos taking girls honors.

Senior Evan Carbajal came in 40th for the Rams in the boys’ race with a time of 18:28.18. The top runner for the Lady Rams was eighth-grader Aubrey McNeill, 59th in 23:07.52.