Lady Rams fall short of sweep against NMMI

ROSWELL - Portales High's girls just missed a clean sweep on Tuesday, notching an 8-1 dual tennis victory over New Mexico Military.

Sophomore Lorena Fernandez dropped a tight 9-7 pro-set decision at No. 4 singles to Sara Jones, but other than that Portales dropped just one set in dispatching the Lady Colts.

Meantime, NMMI had its way on the boys' side, blanking the Rams 9-0. Portales' closest match in that dual was a 9-7 loss by freshman Aidan Harvey and junior Joseph Garcia at No. 3 doubles against the Colts' Naom Emerson and Nick VanLue.

On Monday, PHS squads began District 4-4A action at Artesia, with the Rams losing to the Bulldogs 8-1 while the Lady Rams were handed a 7-2 setback.

Harvey and Garcia posted the lone win for the boys, defeating Alex Madrid and Jaiden Orquiz 8-3 at No. 3 doubles.

Winners for the Lady Rams were junior Jenna Brown, who beat Charity Argo 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 at No. 2 singles, and eighth-grader Belia Lopez with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over the Lady Bulldogs' Anna Netherlin at No. 6.

The next outing for PHS squads will be in district matchups at Roswell Goddard on Monday.

Hobbs Invite - Clovis High's tennis squads finished off a 3-1 showing in the five-team Hobbs Invite round-robin event last weekend with a 14-5 victory over Portales at the CHS tennis courts on Saturday in a combined dual plus one mixed match.

All five wins for PHS came in the girls' portion of the dual.

The rest of the matches were played on Friday, some at Hobbs and others at Lovington.

The Cats and Lady Cats absorbed a 16-3 whipping at the hands of Hobbs, but they defeated Lovington 13-6 and outlasted Artesia 14-5.

All three Clovis wins against Hobbs came in girls competition, with senior Ayia Al Saleh beating Isabell Armendariz 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, freshman Hansini Lingala taking a 6-4, 6-3 verdict over Lynlee Armstrong at No. 5 and Al Saleh and junior Niliyaah Hall posting a 10-5 supertiebreaker win over Jessica Sturgill and Armstrong at No. 1 doubles.

Against Lovington, CHS forfeited the mixed doubles match, but went 6-3 in the boys dual and 7-2 on the girls side to win comfortably. Meantime, Clovis rode seven wins from the boys to get past Artesia.

Portales was relatively competitive in losing to Hobbs 13-6 - all six wins were in girls action - and against Lovington 11-8. The Rams and Lady Rams were handed a 16-3 setback by Artesia.

Clovis opened its District 4-5A slate on Friday at home against Carlsbad, and returns to action this Friday with district duals at Roswell High.