CARLSBAD — With nothing really on the line, Clovis High’s volleyball team struggled to get going Saturday.

Once the Lady Wildcats pulled out a tight second set, though, they took off for an 18-25, 26-24, 25-9, 25-13 District 4-5A victory over Carlsbad in the regular-season finale for both squads.

Paige Gardner had 12 kills and five digs for the Lady Cats (13-7, 4-0 district). Meantime, junior libero Felicia Aguilar returned after missing Thursday’s 3-0 loss to Artesia with illness and deliverd 19 digs.

Despite the slow start, CHS coach Darrel Ray said his squad didn’t really struggle that much.

“We played pretty well in Game 1 and Game 2,” Ray said. “They (Cavegirls) were all figred up. I guess they do a better job on senior day than we do.

“We just made way too many hitting mistakes.”

Carlsbad (4-15, 1-3) dominated the first game, taking advantage of nine CHS hitting errors, then erased a 5-1 deficit to lead in the second set before Clovis rallied back and held on at the end.

After that, it was all Lady Cats.

“We just took over the match,” Ray said. “We served real well and put a lot of pressure on them. It seemed like everything we did was good at that point.”

Aguilar was on the service line for an eight-point run that broke the Lady Cats out of a 10-10 tie and pretty much put the outcome out of doubt.

“This is always a difficult match down here,” Ray said. “It was one of those things where they (Cavegirls) had a good effort. It just looked like they kind of wore out (at the end).”

The Lady Cats will host the championship of the three-team district tournament on Saturday, expected to have a 6:30 p.m. start. Carlsbad won a tiebreaker with Hobbs (also 1-3 in the district) and will host the Lady Eagles on Thursday night.

Clovis won the junior varsity preliminary 25-22, 21-25, 15-12. The JV Lady Cats finished their season with an 11-6 record.