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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
Eagles down Prowlers; second match canceled
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Given the circumstances on Tuesday, the Pecos Eagles were probably
fortunate to get even one of their scheduled two games in at the Pecos
High School gym. And the Eagles did make the most of it, scoring a
15-6, 15-7 victory over the Fort Stockton Prowlers for only their fifth
win in 20 matches this season.
Pecos and Fort Stockton were also supposed to play Marfa on Tuesday, but
Eagles' coach Becky Granado said in the wake of the Tuesday's terrorist attacks
on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Virginia, the Shorthorns
didn't make the 95-mile trip to Pecos.
"They (Marfa ISD officials) didn't let the kids come down. They wanted
them to stay home," Granado said.
That resulted in a rare late-afternoon single match, and after falling
behind by a 4-0 score in the opening game, the Eagles turned things around
in Game 1, helped by serving problems suffered by the Prowlers, who are also
struggling during the 2001 season.
Granado said a team meeting on Monday might have helped the Eagles solve
some of their communication problems. "They cleared up some things that were
bothering them, and that helped matters some. They were communicating and
talking on the court today," she said. "But we still need to work on our
offense. I feel like we're still holding back."
Three unforced errors and a block of a Jessica Rodriguez tip attempt by
Bianca Oliva got the Prowlers their early lead, before the Eagles ran off
six straight points, beginning with an ace serve by Stephanie Herrera.
Fort Stockton had their own unforced errors during that run, and caused
some more problems for themselves after that, as the Eagles scored the final
nine points of the game after the Prowlers tied things at 6-6. Jessica Rodriguez
had an ace serve during that run and Tiana Terry added a kill as part of
the nine-point rally.
The second game started as the opposite of the first, with the Eagles
grabbing a 5-0 lead only to see the Prowlers rally for a 6-5 lead. Jessica
Martinez and Stephanie Herrera were able to place balls between the Fort
Stockton defense at the start, while Olivia had a couple of points off a
tip and spike over the shorter Eagle blockers.
But a Terry kill re-tied the game and started a 6-0 run for Pecos that
included some more unforced Fort Stockton errors and was capped off by a
Rebecca Wein spike. Fort Stockton broke serve and scored one last point,
before the Eagles got the ball back and won when the Prowlers mishandled
four straight Pecos serves, including serves by Victoria Gomez and Sarah
Marquez.
"They played with more emotion and at least we were happy when we did
good things. I haven't seen that in a long time," Granado said. "Our defense
was better than it's been and we passed the ball better. We didn't have Jessica
running all over the court to set."
The Eagles' freshmen and junior varsity teams also played on Tuesday.
The ninth graders ended a 10-day break with a 15-5, 15-2 loss to Fort Stockton,
while the JV played for the first time in a week and defeated the Prowlers,
2-15, 15-3, 15-3.
Depending on how national events play out, the Eagles are scheduled to
play two more home matches this week, against Kermit and Presidio starting
at 11 a.m. on Saturday, before opening their District 2-4A schedule next
Tuesday at Clint.
Bears' runners earn medals in Seminole
The Balmorhea Bears' junior high and high school cross country teams competed
in their first races of the 2001 season this past Saturday, at the Seminole
Indian Run in Seminole.
The boys' junior high squad placed two runners in the Top 12, out of a
field of 67 competitors, while for the girls Savannah Matta placed 20
th and Amber Cook was 71st in a field of 143 runners.
Coach Doug Maynard said Cook and Matta started a little slow and literally
had to work their way from the very back of the pack in their 1.8 mile race.
Amber Cook finished with a time of 14:28 while Matta's 20th place
time 12:38, and earned her a medal.
On the boys' side, Maynard said Mike Hernandez led the race in the early
going on the 1.8 mile course, at one point going out in front by 40 yards
before slowing down towards the finish and winding up 11th, with
an 11:02 time. Meanwhile, Brian Mendoza started out a little lower but finished
faster, ended up in sixth place with a 10:47 time. The Bears' other runner,
Shaun Baeza, placed 48th, with a 13:14 time.
Maynard said among the high school team, Mike Dominguez ran in the junior
varsity division and placed a respectable 27th out of 82 runners after having
been sick for two weeks prior and not being able to train with intensity.
His time was 19:45 for three miles.
Maynard said both Dominguez and his lone varsity runner, Sammy Dominguez,
had played in the Bears' game against Whitharral Friday night, and then had
to leave Balmorhea at 5 a.m. for the drive to Seminole.
Sammy Dominguez ran against the other Class A through 5A varsity runners
and ended up in 20th place, with a time of 16:14. Maynard said
the time was the junior's personal best and 27 seconds faster than his best
time in 2000.
Maynard said the Running Bears of Balmorhea will be off to Carlsbad this
Saturday for their next race, scheduled for 11 a.m. CDT.
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 newsdesk@nwol.net
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2001 by Pecos Enterprise
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