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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, September 20, 2000
Third game collapse costs Eagles
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Sept. 20, 2000 -- You've heard of games where no lead is safe? Tuesday
night at the Pecos High School gym it was the opposite -- all leads were
safe for the Clint Lions and the Pecos Eagles, and the last lead of the
night belonged to the Lions.
Clint never trailed in the opening game, winning by a 15-9
score, Pecos never trailed in Game 2, beating the Lions, 15-1, and in
Game 3 the Lions jumped out to a 6-1 lead, on the way to a 15-4 victory
over Pecos in the District 2-4A opening match for both teams.
"We get down and that's it. We don't know how to fight back,"
said Eagles' coach Becky Granado. "All they (Clint) did was tap the
ball. That's their game plan _ tap the ball to Pecos and let them give us
the game."
The teams played a similar game last month in Monahans. Pecos
was down in the third game of that one, 7-2, but ended up winning, 15-12
in part because speed up rules were used, so that bad serves and
any mistake counted as points.
But this time, it was Pecos that couldn't handle Clint's serves,
pass or set in the third game, after the Lions had the same problem
in Game 2. The Eagles jumped ahead 9-0 in that one, starting with an
ace by Alex Marquez and finishing with a spike of an overset by
Philly Fobbs.
"They looked good in the second game, but they couldn't follow
it up," said Granado. "There's just a lack of communication out there."
Fobbs would have a couple more kills and D'Andra Ortega
finished off Game 2 with a block of Marissa Arnold, before things
completely turned around in Game 3. It opened with a Michelle Tullius block on
a Marquez spike and was followed by two bad relays by
Becky Dominguez, a block of Fobbs by Arnold and an ace by Tullius
before Granado called time-out.
Pecos did get to within 7-3 at one point, after a Stephanie Baeza
block of a Marquez spike went out of bounds, but then the
Eagles completely fell apart, allowing Clint to score seven straight points,
five on unforced errors. A dink by Alba Esparza and a spike by
Collanne Bramblette were the only points earned by the Lions.
The Eagles finally broke serve and got one more point on a
Fobbs spike, but they then couldn't get their serves in, and the game
ended with a Dee Dee Molinar spike into the net.
Game 1 was the closest of the three games, but again, the
Eagles did themselves in after cutting a 10-4 deficit to 13-9 the Eagles
lost serve on what would have been a point when Ortega was called for
a net violation. Bramblett then blocked a Fobbs shot, and
ended the game moments later with a spike off of Ortega.
"We had some good blocks, and Philly had some good hits, but
we don't have enough offense and we don't have enough
defense," Granado said. "The only bright
spot I saw today was Kalyn (Lara). She came off the bench and did what
she wanted to do. I told the girls she looks like she wanted the spot,
but I don't know if some of them care."
The loss dropped Pecos to 18-7 on the season, while Clint
evened their record at 9-9 with the victory. Pecos now goes to Fabens
on Saturday to face the Wildcats, who won their opener over Canutillo,
15-13, 15-11. El Paso Mountain View downed San Elizario in the other
2-4A opener, 15-10, 4-15, 15-8.
Pecos also lost in three games to Clint's junior varsity, 15-7, 2-15,
15-7, while the Eagles' freshmen downed the Lions, 15-1, 15-2.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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