Lady Rattlers take home victory

If the Lady Rattlers needed a match to toughen up before they begin district play this week, they got one in a 25-16, 23-25, 25-15, 24-26, 15-6 non-district home victory Saturday over Elida that took about two hours to complete.

Tucumcari senior Amber Owen, who leads New Mexico's Class 3A in average kills per set, kept coming up with crucial spikes among the 22 she totaled, along with five serving aces.

"We're going to keep giving her the ball. She's having a phenomenal year," Tucumcari coach Dana Benavidez said.

Alexus Lafferty made a team-high 28 digs for the Lady Rattlers (6-10).

"Alexus, she gets to balls I don't know how she gets to. She had some huge digs, especially in that fifth set," Benavidez said.

Tucumcari's left-handed server, Alexis Ramirez, delivered three aces during a critical 6-0 scoring run in the fifth set.

"Alexis Ramirez served great in that final game and really came through," she said.

Benavidez said her team struggled with its serving at times - including five errors in a second-set loss.

"There were a lot of ups and downs. We had moments of greatness and other moments where we struggled, had some unforced errors. A couple of games, we had serving errors that we normally don't have. But when we needed to come through with big serves, we did," she said.

She expressed hope that winning a five-set marathon will help her squad during its District 4 schedule, which begins this week with matches against Dexter and New Mexico Military Institute.

"You're never happy to go to five sets," Benavidez said. "But today, I was happy we finished the game. An intense game like this, where you have to play to win, it proved that we could finish."

Elida fell to 6-10 overall. Coach Darrell Chenault, who won seven straight state titles at Elida from 2010 to 2016, came out of retirement this year to lead the Lady Tigers again.

"Serving was the difference in the game," he said. "When we served good, we beat them, and when they served good, they beat us. Both teams really struggled at serve receive a lot of times. If you can't get the ball up on serve receive, it's going to be a long night."

Chenault said he likes the progress he's seeing with his young and scrappy club.

"I'm starting three eighth-graders out there," he said. "I yell at them a lot, but I don't treat them like they're eighth-graders, and I have to sometimes back up and realize that's what they are. But they've responded well, and we have to learn the little nuances of volleyball. Once we get that done, we'll be good."

Saturday's match was the Lady Rattlers' annual Think Pink event for breast cancer awareness, and both teams wore pink-accented uniforms.

Before the match, players from Tucumcari and Elida lined up to honor nine breast-cancer survivors and present them with gifts.

The Snake Pit also hosted a bake sale that netted $351 for a needy family that includes a breast cancer survivor.

Santa Rosa 3, Tucumcari 0

Tucumcari fell 21-25, 22-25, 19-25 in a non-district home match Thursday against strong Santa Rosa that had been rescheduled because of a COVID-19 quarantine.

Benavidez said her team played better against Santa Rosa than during the previous matchup on Aug. 21.

"Santa Rosa's a great team, but we played well," Benavidez said. "We just couldn't finish."

Owen totaled a team-high 10 kills for the Lady Rattlers, and Caylee Benavidez had 17 assists and two blocks.

The Lady Lions improved to 13-4 overall and are in first place in Class 2A's District 6.