Saturday, September 13, 2008

Lady Eagles play Lady Tigers close for 2 games, but LLHS wins

LLHS's Davis out indefinitely with knee injury

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas Game one between the Belen and Los Lunas volleyball teams Tuesday had all the intensity and competitiveness of a district championship or a state tournament match.

Game two had some of that intensity, but things mellowed out for game three. In the end, Los Lunas walked away with its seventh straight win over the Eagles, a 28-26, 25-22, 25-16 sweep that the Tigers gained using many first-year varsity players.

Class 5A LLHS has won every game in each match with 4A Belen since the 2000-01 season, when the Eagles swept the Tigers. The teams didn't play each other in 2003-04.

"We don't care if they're a 4A team, we always want to beat Belen," said LLHS Connie Campos "That's how it is with a rivalry."

The Eagles are scheduled to compete at the Zia Classic in Roswell this weekend, with the Tigers idle unitl hosting Del Norte on Thursday, Sept. 14, at approximately 7 p.m.

Los Lunas played Tuesday's match without DeAnza Davis, its senior middle blocker, who suffered a knee injury in last weekend's tournament at Las Cruces. Campos said Davis will have an MRI on her right knee on Monday, and is out indefinitely.

The first game was tied many times, though Belen (3-2) went up 18-14 at one point before the Tigers rallied to tie. Los Lunas (4-5) kept tying the match but couldn't take the lead. Belen led 24-22 and was on the verge of its first game victory in a Los Lunas match in eight years, but Los Lunas rallied to win the match. Belen led 26-25 as well, but a potential game-winning hit sailed wide.

"I feel like we did a lot of good things. We just need to clean up some of the little things," said BHS coach Barbara Rodriguez. "This is good experience if we use it."

The second game was close for nearly as long, with Los Lunas taking a 21-17 lead. The resilient Eagles tied the match at 21-21, however, and clinched the game on another Belen hitting error.

The third game was tied 14-14 before the Tigers rattled off four straight points, and LLHS ended up scoring 11 of the match's final 13 points.

"We had some good drive and intensity in the first two matches, and that comes from being up for playing Los Lunas," said Rodriguez. "But we lost momentum. We need to be up for the whole match."

For Belen, Brittany Jaramillo had 11 kills, though Los Lunas blocked many of her attempts when in the middle. Cierra Cox added nine kills for the Eagles.

Korriah Peña was the main offensive weapon for the Tigers, and she helped to contain Jaramillo at times.

"She (Jaramillo) got in a few good ones, but then she backed off a bit," said Campos.

Thursday, the Tigers will face a Class 4A Del Norte team that beat Los Lunas last season.

"Eight days off is fine for us right now, and we worked on some conditioning things this week," said Campos.

Belen was set to face Class 5A Hobbs, 3A Portales and 1A power Tatum in pool play of the Zia Classic on Friday. after News-Bulletin press time.

E-mail this story Printer-friendly version