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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Monday, August 30, 1999
Greenwood takes title, Eagles fifth again
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Aug. 30, 1999 -- The oddsmakers would have taken a beating on
the Pecos Cantaloupe Classic, if there was any betting on high school volleyball.
Most of the favored teams went home disappointed, while Greenwood _
the team that had been favored to win the tournament two years ago, but
didn't _ came away with the title this time around.
As for the Pecos Eagles, they finished fifth for the second straight
season in their own tournament. But unlike last season, when the Eagles
were taken out in the quarterfinals by El Paso Bowie, this year they took
themselves out, as coach Becky Granado sat down starters Philonicus Fobbs
and Amy Chabarria for disciplinary reasons in their quarterfinal match
against Fort Stockton.
Even without the two, the Eagles managed to score a 15-4 victory in
the opener, and held a six point lead midway through the second game. But
Pecos wasn't able to get their offense going after that, while the Prowlers
began connecting on their outside hits and rallied for a 15-12 win, then
won the deciding game by a 15-4 score.
Granado said the two showed up late for warm-ups before Saturday's 11
a.m. match. "I think all of them learned they need to realize there are
rules to be followed and if you don't follow the rules there are going
to be consequences," Granado said. "I hate doing that, but I have to teach
them."
Amanda Chavara led the Prowlers comeback, while Lindsey Andrews and
Amanda Monts also came up with kills in the second and third games for
Fort Stockton. Meanwhile, the Eagles were unable to find the holes for
their shots the way they did in the early going, and were blocked several
times on spike attempts over the middle.
"I keep telling them when they have a big blocker taking the cross court
(spike) away, they have to slice it down the line," Granado said. Salcido
did the best job with down the line shots, and ended up earning all-tournament
honors for Pecos.
Things went much better for the Eagles in their final two tournament
matches. They swept past Marfa by 15-6, 15-4 scores, then posted a surprisingly
easy 15-0, 15-9 victory over Monahans, after the Loboes had eliminated
pre-tournament favorite Seminole earlier in the afternoon.
Chabarria and Dee Dee Molinar had ace serves in the win over the Shorthorns,
who also didn't have the size to deal with Fobbs in the middle. She had
a par of kills in Game 2, after Marfa took a 3-0 lead, while Alexa Marquez
had back-to-back spikes late, capping a 14-0 run that put Pecos in command.
The Eagles really didn't have to do anything but watch Ashley Salcido
serve in their 15-0 blanking of the Loboes. Monahans was unable to handle
a series of Salcido's serves, while D'Andra Ortega and Marquez also scored
points off kills in the shutout victory.
The Loboes fared better in the early going of Game 2, with Mandy Wilson
and Vanessa Collins scoring off kills to give Monahans a 4-2 lead. The
Eagles would regain the lead and go up 7-4 before Monahans tied it once
more at 8-8.
Monahans then fell apart again, allowing five straight points on unforced
errors before the Eagles finished things off, on hits by Fobbs and Marquez.
"I don't know why, but Monahans just had a hard time with our serves,"
Granado said. "They gave Seminole a much better game."
Fort Stockton, meanwhile, was beaten by Grandfalls in their tournament
semifinal match, while Greenwood, after sweeping Seminole in their quarterfinal,
did the same to Alpine in the semifinals, then beat Grandfalls in the championship
match, 15-9, 15-5. Before that match, the Prowlers claimed third place
with a 15-9, 8-15, 15-13 win over Alpine.
Greenwood's Stephanie Willis was named tournament MVP, and teammate
Rocio Montoya was also an all-tournament selection. Grandfalls' Misty Stokes
and Donna Rodriguez were the outstanding setter and defensive player, while
Alpine's Oleta McWilliams was named outstanding hitter. The other all-tournament
picks were Andrews and Jessica Carrillo from Fort Stockton, Amanda Dominguez
from Alpine, Amanda Krane from Monahans and Cynthia Arieta from Fabens.
Pecos' JV and freshmen teams both went 1-1 in tournament play on Saturday.
The freshmen beat Monahans, 15-10, 11-15, 15-13, then lost to Crane, 15-11,
15-6, while the JV lost to Odessa High before beating Monahans for third.
All three Pecos teams will be back on the road Tuesday, for a dual meet
in Alpine against the Bucks and Odessa High. Pecos lost to Alpine and beat
OHS in Odessa to open the season two weeks ago.
Rangers post sweep, add to Jays' woes
TORONTO, Aug. 30, 1999 (AP) — The Toronto Blue Jays might have let their
playoff hopes slip away with nine straight home losses.
Rafael Palmeiro set a team record with his 39th RBI of the month as
the Texas Rangers defeated the Blue Jays 4-2 Sunday.
Toronto, which fell four games back in the AL wild-card race, is in
the midst of its second-worst home losing streak ever. The 1977 expansion
Blue Jays dropped 11 in a row at Exhibition Stadium.
"We need to get going," Toronto starter Roy Halladay said. "It's weird
that we're not winning at home."
The AL West-leading Rangers swept the three-game series and won their
fourth straight overall. Texas (79-52) moved 27 games over .500 for the
first time in club history, and only five of their final 31 games are against
teams with winning records.
"We're not going to try to cruise toward the postseason. We're trying
to build momentum, and we're trying to get better and we're trying to figure
out how to be on full speed when we enter the playoffs," Palmeiro said.
Palmeiro's RBI single and Todd Zeile's two-run homer in the fourth inning
gave Texas a 3-1 lead. Palmeiro broke the Rangers' record of 38 RBIs in
a month, set by Juan Gonzalez in July 1996.
"We're not concentrating on individual accomplishments, we just want
to keep winning," Palmeiro said.
Shannon Stewart extended his hitting streak to 26 games with a single
in the first inning for Toronto.
John Burkett (5-7) allowed one run and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings.
Halladay (8-6) gave up three runs on eight hits in 6 2-3 innings.
"I made one bad pitch to Zeile and it ended up costing us the game,"
Halladay said.
The Blue Jays loaded the bases with no outs in the first, but scored
just one run on Carlos Delgado's RBI single. Burkett struck out Tony Batista
for the first out and got Willie Greene to hit into a double play.
"I had no idea where my fastball was going, so I decided I was going
to have to get them with my breaking stuff," Burkett said. "Luckily, I
was able to make a couple of key pitches and get out of it."
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 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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