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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Friday, August 24, 2001
Eagles down Matadors to start off tournament
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
In a season that so far has gone the opposite way of most other seasons
for the Pecos Eagles in recent years, the opening match of the Cantaloupe
Classic Volleyball Tournament this morning also began differently for Pecos
_ which in this case was a good thing.
The Eagles, who have had a habit of starting slowly in pool round play
in their own tournament over the years, got off to a good start this morning
against El Paso Parkland, as they took advantage of the Matadors' problems
handling serves and setting up shots to score a 15-11, 15-9 win in their
first of their four matches today.
"It's getting better," said Eagles' coach Becky Granado, whose team
came into play today with a 2-8 record, after losing only nine games all
of last season. "I had a talk with my seniors about leadership, and they're
going to start working at it. I could tell there was a difference today.
It was just a matter of stepping up."
The Eagles have had trouble handling serves and passing the ball so
far in 2001, and that's the way this morning's match started. A mishandled
serve by Kathy Maldonado, a spike by Parkland's Jennifer Alonzo and an
ace serve by Bridget Walters got the Matadors out to a 7-4 lead (all pool
games start with a 4-4 score and don't count in the overall team season
records). But the Eagles then broke serve and got on the board when Jessica
Martinez blocked Elizabeth Vera's tip attempt, then scored the next five
points on a pair of serves by Christina Arenivas, a spike by Tiana Terry
a bad set by Alonzo and a serve by Maldonado.
The Matadors would rally to tie the game twice, at 10-10 and 11-11,
but both times the Eagles were able to break serve and regain the lead,
before winning off a bad spike by Vera and two kills by Terry.
The second game also closed out with a Terry spike, after the Eagles
had gone out to a 12-6 lead when Parkland had problems handling Arenivas'
serves. El Paso did close to within 12-9 on an ace by Vanessa Castro and
spikes by Walters and Alexis Clark, but after a time out the Eagles broke
serve and won off missed hits by Clark and Walters and Terry's spike between
two Parkland blockers.
"Tiana came around today and our blocking is improving, but we're still
struggling with our serves, I think we missed five," Granado said. "We're
still having trouble passing the ball too, but at least we were keeping
it on the court today where the setters could run to it."
The Eagles were scheduled to face Fort Hancock in a 10:30 a.m. pool
round match today, but Granado said that contest was pushed back to this
afternoon due to a scheduling conflict. "I had Kermit playing three matches
in a row, so we switched with them," she said. Pecos will play Marfa at
1:50, then take an hour break before facing Fort Hancock at 3:30 p.m. and
Kermit at 4:20 p.m.
Pecos' junior varsity team also began pool round play in their bracket
of the Cantaloupe Classic this morning against Presidio this morning, and
will face Andrews and Odessa Permian at 12 noon and 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Eagles' freshman team struggled on Thursday in pool round
play for their tournament division, going 0-6 on the evening at the PHS
gym. The ninth graders lost to Fort Stockton, 15-13, 15-6; then fell to
Wink 15-13, 15-5, and were beaten by Crane's `B' team, 15-11, 15-8. The
ninth graders will play again on Saturday in the consolation bracket of
their tournament, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Crockett Middle School gym.
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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