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Van Horn Advocate
The Pecos Eagles opened their 1997 volleyball season at home two weeks ago with a two game loss to the Alpine Bucks and a three game win over the Odessa High Bronchos. Tuesday night in Alpine, the teams met again, and the Eagles wound up with a two game loss to the Bucks and a three game win over the Bronchos.
However, Eagles' coach Becky Granado said the level of play was better the second time around, after her team fell to Alpine, 15-13, 15-9, and defeated Odessa High, 10-15, 15-2, 15-6.
Granado said a lack of offense hurt Pecos against the Bucks. "We were trying to tap the ball instead of hitting it, and we were just barely able to get it over the net."
"We played better defense, and our blocking was 100 percent better. Blocking was probably the best thing we did all night, but overall, we just didn't have any offense against Alpine."
The Eagles were far closer to being swept by the Bucks and Bronchos last time than they were on Tuesday. After their opening loss this time to Odessa High, Pecos took control the rest of the way, improving their record to 8-4 on the season.
"In the first game, we just weren't into it, but we came back and started to play ball in the second and third games," Granado said.
In junior and freshman varsity play, the Eagles split going the other way, beating Alpine and losing to Odessa high. The JV beat the Bucks, 9-15, 15-11, 15-12, and lost to Odessa High, 15-5, 15-7, while the freshman purple squad downed the Bucks, 15-12, 15-12, and fell to OHS' sophomores, 17-15, 15-6.
Pecos' next action will be Friday at the Seminole Invitational, where they'll face Vernon, Colorado City and Greenwood, the team they beat this past Saturday to win their own Cantaloupe Classic Tournament.
The Bronchos blanked the Eagles by a 20-0 score, in the first of two home matches for Pecos this week.
"They're a young team. Their No. 1 singles player in a freshman, but some of the shots they were hitting were tremendous," said Eagles' coach Bernadette Ornelas.
"Overall, you could tell the kids were coming back from a three-day weekend, but we just played a pretty good team," Ornelas said of OHS, which downed Andrews, last season's 4-4A runner-up, a week ago.
Odessa High wound up bringing two more boys than the Eagles had, and four fewer girls than Pecos for the meet. As a result, the teams played 11 of their 20 matches on the girls side. "I had some girls play just doubles matches, and others just played singles," Ornelas said.
The closest matches on the boys' side were a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 loss by No. 4 seed Jeff Lam to John O'Hearn, and a 6-2, 6-2 loss by No. 1 seed Jonathan Fuentes to Adam Carson. On the girls' side, No. 1 seed Randa Taylor fell to Jennifer Kupper, 6-3, 6-2, and fourth seed Erin Dominguez lost 6-3, 6-4 to Kathleen O'Hearn.
All the doubles matches, and several of the singles matches, were reduced to pro sets to save time, Ornelas said.
The Eagles will be at home again on Thursday for a non-district match against Fort Stockton. The teams will meet again in Pecos to close out the fall season next month.
Results for Tuesday's matches are listed below:
Boys Singles
Jonathan Fuentes lost to Adam Carson, 6-2, 6-2; Mark Marquez lost to Mauricio Quintela, 6-0, 6-2; Tye Graham lost to Punkaj Patel, 6-1, 6-2; Jeff Lam lost to John O'Hearn 3-6, 6-2, 6-1; Alan Fleming lost to Denver Bilyeu, 8-3; David Lam lost to Brett McKinney, 6-1, 6-0.
Girls Singles
Randa Taylor lost to Jennifer Kupper, 6-3, 6-2; Teresa Minjarez lost to D'nett Sharp, 8-2; Nichi Dannelley lost to Heidi Gerber, 6-1, 6-0; Vanessa Miranda lost to Krystal Handley, 6-0; Erin Dominguez lost to Kathleen O'Hearn, 6-3, 6-4; Lorrie Minjarez lost to Janna Coffee, 6-1, 6-1; Rachel Pharoah lost to Jamie Qualls, 6-1, 6-1.
Boys Doubles
Fuentes and Marquez lost to Carson and Quintela, 8-2; J. Lam and Graham lost to O'Hearn and Patel, 8-3; D. Lam and Fleming lost to Bilyeu and McKinney, 8-1.
Girls Doubles
Taylor and Danelley lost to Kupper ad O'Hearn, 8-2; Minjarez and Miranda lost to Sharp and Gerber, 8-1, Meagan Joplin and Tiffany Jarrett lost to Handley and Kupper, 8-0; Lisa Orona and Salem Mitchell lost to Qualls and Kristen Allen, 8-0.
Belew said the meeting would begin at 7 p.m. in the school cafeteria, and be similar to a meeting held last week with Zavala Middle School parents.
Newton spent more than an hour Tuesday before a grand jury that later declined to indict him on a sexual assault charge recommended by prosecutors.
Later, Newton briefly addressed reporters, saying he had ``made a mistake'' by having an affair with his accuser, who defense attorneys said had tried to extort money from Newton before going to police.
``I hurt my wife and my family and disgraced the Dallas Cowboys,'' Newton said. ``I've talked to some of my teammates and some of the leaders of the team. From the beginning they have backed me. I've promised them that if I can get through this I will be less of a distraction for my team.''
Newton's statement was brief, and he took no questions.
``Anything else about civil suits or whether we're going to file anything against them will be handled through my lawyer,'' he said.
His lawyer, Howard Shapiro, wouldn't say if Newton would sue the woman.
``Mr. Newton wants to play football, get on with his life, help the Dallas Cowboys win another Super Bowl,'' Shapiro said.
The 31-year-old woman who accused Newton of raping her in her mobile home on June 15 was ``pretty crushed'' by the decision, according to her lawyer, Bryan McDonald.
``It took a lot of courage for her to come forward. To have the grand jury jerk the rug out from under her is kind of disheartening.''
Her fears of not being believed were what had kept her from reporting the alleged crime to Grand Prairie police before July 8, McDonald said.
``It's not totally unexpected,'' he said. ``We tried to prepare ourselves for exactly this situation because of the mystique of the Cowboys.''
Responded Shapiro: ``I'm tired of hearing that. He's also the one that said this wasn't about seeking money, it's about seeking justice.''
Shapiro has said the woman falsely cried rape after an evening of consentual sex in an attempt to extort money -- anywhere from $80,000 to $650,000 -- from his client.
The woman and Newton have confirmed they had a relationship that Shapiro said lasted 15 months.
First Assistant District Attorney Norm Kinne said the woman's credibility was harmed by her monetary negotiations with Newton before going to police.
Kinne said he could not speak for grand jurors, but ``they probably did not appreciate this monetary negotiations breaking down prior to the time that the criminal justice system is brought into play.''
Last week, the grand jury heard a recording, made by the woman's answering machine June 17, in which Newton appears to apologize for his actions that night, said Kinne, adding that was probably the strongest evidence against Newton.
``It's an apology, sort of, and an admission, sort of,'' he said.
Four witnesses, including Newton and his wife, testified Tuesday before the panel, which also had for its review a packet of four letters from the woman's lawyers to Shapiro and Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones, Shapiro said.
One of the letters sent him demanded $650,000 or threatened publicity and criminal prosecution, he said.
``We're going to take a serious look at her lawyer's actions now,'' Shapiro said.
``It's not as though we went in making a bunch of demands unsolicited,'' McDonald said. ``They wanted to try to resolve this manner monetarily.''
The woman now plans to file a civil lawsuit over the events of that night, he said.
``We hoped the criminal courts would take responsibility in this case,'' McDonald said. ``Now that they haven't, we have no choice.''
Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, Publisher
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324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
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