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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, October 17, 2000
Eagles seek playoff spot in El Paso
PECOS, Oct. 17, 2000 -- The Pecos Eagles can get themselves into the playoffs
or get themselves into trouble tonight, depending on the outcome of their
match in El Paso against the Mountain View Lobos.
Pecos faces Mountain View starting at about 7:30 p.m., in the final regular
season road match for the Eagles, who are tied for first with Clint in
the District 2-4A standings. Both teams are 6-2, while Mountain View is
a game back, at 5-3 after their 15-8, 15-9 loss to Clint on Saturday.
The Eagles had their easiest game of the year on Saturday on the
other side of El Paso, beating Canutillo by 15-0, 15-4 scores, in a match
where Pecos just missed getting their first `shutout' win since their
state championship season of 1987. They held a 14-0 lead in Game 2
before Canutillo broke serve and scored four straight points on a series of
unforced errors.
The 1987 team is also the last Class 4A team to go through
the season undefeated. This year's team can't do that, but they can
save themselves a lot of trouble if they can go though this week with a
perfect record.
A win would clinch a fifth straight post-season berth for the
Eagles, while a loss would drop them into a tie with Mountain View, and
likely only a game up on fourth place San Elizario. San Eli hosts
Canutillo tonight, then goes to Pecos on Saturday needing wins in both
of their games this week to remain in the playoff picture.
Pecos lost to San Eli three weeks ago, after blowing out the
then-first place Lobos three days earlier, 15-2, 15-4. A pair of losses by tonight
and Saturday would leave them facing a rematch with their Eagle rivals
next week just to make the playoffs, instead of a possible first place playoff
with Clint or a bye into the area round of the Class 4A playoffs that wins
over Mountain View and San Eli would provide.
"I hope the girls don't take Mountain View for granted
because they had an easy time with them the first time," said Eagles' coach
Becky Granado. They need to play with intensity.
"We're trying to win the district title outright or share it (with
Clint). Mountain View and San Eli are both fighting for a spot, and they'll give
it all they have, but we can't be worried about other teams, we just have to
go out and take care of our business," Granado said.
Philly Fobbs had five kills in the first meeting with Mountain
View, which played tentative on defense and never gave their leading
hitter Diana Gonzales a chance to do much on offense.
Aside from a win, one thing the Eagles will be hoping for tonight
is that the officials show up. They didn't last season when Pecos went
to Mountain View, which forced the Eagles to make another 180-mile
trip to El Paso at the end of the season, where they beat the Lobos to
clinch second behind Clint, and forced Mountain View into a third
place playoff with San Elizario, which the Lobos also ended up losing.
Bears hunt second half improvement
PECOS, Oct. 17, 2000 -- The first half result for the Balmorhea Bears
volleyball appear no better this season than they were for Balmorhea in
any of the past several seasons. But even with an 0-3 mark, Bears' coach Gary Gallego thinks his
team has a chance to reverse those results and have a shot at a
post-season berth, when second half play begins for the Bears tonight at home
against Grandfalls.
"We still have a chance. Even Wink is beatable this year,"
said Gallego. The Bears lost to Grandfalls, Wink and Buena Vista in the first
half of district play, but outside of their loss a week ago to the
Longhorns, have looked much better than in the past several seasons against
their district rivals.
"That (last Tuesday's 15-4, 15-3 loss at Buena Vista) was our
worst game of the season," said Gallego, who added his team played better
in a losing effort this past Friday at Dell City, in a non-district match
against the Cougars.
"I mixed the lineup up a little, and the girls played better, he said of
the 15-9, 15-12 loss to Dell City, which leads District 1-4A right now. "We
fell behind 6-0 at the start, and then made a game out of it. In the second
game, we never led, but we played them a lot closer."
He said Julia Garlick and Celina Rodriguez both improved on
their serves in the game, with Garlick coming up with four aces on
Friday. She also had six assists, three kills and a block, while Rodriguez had
three aces, two kills and a block. Amber Briceno and Delilah Nunez also
had three kills in the losing effort.
The Bears get both Grandfalls at home tonight and Buena Vista at
home next week, after a trip to Wink this coming Saturday. "If we can win
all three games, we still have a shot at the second playoff berth,"
said Gallego, whose team comes in with an 11-10 mark and will also try
and stay above .500 tonight with a victory over the Cowgirls, who beat the
Bears in Grandfalls earlier this month, 15-13, 15-11.
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
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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