Melrose, Texico seek to defend state crowns

RIO RANCHO – Five teams from Curry and Roosevelt counties have qualified for this weekend’s state volleyball competition, scheduled for Thursday through Saturday.

Portales High (15-8) will represent the area in Class 4A as the No. 6 seed, while defending champions Texico (20-3) in Class 2A and Melrose (17-6) in Class 1A return to defend their crowns. The Lady Wolverines earned a No. 2 seed while the Lady Buffs were tabbed No. 4.

Also qualifying in 1A were fifth-seeded Elida (17-6) and No. 8 Grady (15-7).

All Class 3A through 5A matches are scheduled for Rio Rancho Event Center. Class 2A matches through Friday are at Rio Rancho H.S., while Class 1A competition through Friday will be at Rio Rancho Cleveland H.S. and Bernalillo H.S.

Everything in the 12-team brackets is double-elimination until Saturday, where semifinals and finals in each class are single-elimination and set for RREC.

The top four seeds in each class drew first-round byes. PHS faces 11th-seeded Gallup (16-7) at 9 a.m. on Thursday in the first round in 4A, with the winner going on to meet third-seeded Santa Teresa (18-4) at 4 p.m.

The Lady Rams have posted a 4-2 record against the field, going 2-0 against ninth-seeded Roswell Goddard and 1-1 against 10th-seeded Artesia en route to the District 4-4A title. They also have a 3-1 win over seventh-seeded Valencia and a 3-0 loss to second-seeded Albuquerque Academy.

In 2A, Texico awaits the winner of a noon first-round match between No. 7 Tatum (13-8) and 10th-seeded Cloudcroft (14-8), with that tilt set for 4 p.m. The Lady Wolverines are 3-0 against those teams, all sweeps, with two coming against Tatum in District 4-2A.

Texico’s losses have been to Class 5A Clovis and Class 4A qualifiers Academy and Portales.

Melrose played its usual relatively strong schedule that included an 0-3 mark against Gateway Christian in District 6-1A. Those teams have met in the previous four 1A title clashes, with the Lady Buffs winning three of them.

They split with seventh-seeded Fort Sumner in district play, and have lost to Portales and Texico. They also have a pair of victories over Clovis.

Coach Casey Jackson has led the team to 10 consecutive state finals, going 5-5 in that stretch with championships in 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021 and last season. Including this year, the Lady Buffs are 222-42 (.841) over that stretch.

Elida finished second to Gateway in 4-1A, against whom the Lady Tigers split, and just ahead of Melrose. Elida won small-school state championships seven years running from 2010-16 under coach Darrell Chenault, compiling a 158-17 record (.903) during that stretch, before the Lady Buffs ended the streak in the 2017 finals.

Grady became the third team from District 6-1A to make the field, posting its best record since a 16-7 mark in the 2016 campaign. Six of the Lady Bronchos’ losses came to Logan, Fort Sumner and Roy/Mosquero, but they do own a 3-2 victory over Elida on September 3.