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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, September 4, 2002
Eagles drop matches against Bucks, Bronchos
Pecos Eagles' coach Becky Granado said her team's play improved a bit
on Tuesday against the Alpine Bucks, compared to their play to close out
the Pecos Cantaloupe Classic Tournament this past Saturday. But it still
wasn't enough to get a win over the Bucks in Alpine, and the Eagles fared
worse in their opening match Tuesday, a two-game loss to the Odessa High
Bronchos.
Pecos lost to Odessa High, 15-9, 15-3, then rallied in the opening game
of their match against Alpine to win 18-16, before losing to the Bucks in
the final two games, 15-7, 15-6.
"Against Odessa High we really didn't do anything. Against Alpine it
went much better," said Granado.
Pecos opened the season by playing poorly in the early part of their
matches and better at the end. The past week has been the reverse _ they've
played their best at the start of each match and slumped off at the finish.
The Eagles easily won all three of their opening games last Saturday at
the Cantaloupe Classic, and were able to hold off Fort Stockton and Fort
Davis in Game 2 there, but lost the second and third games in the championship
match against Fabens, and saw the Bucks bounce back to win the last two
games on Tuesday after Pecos had rallied from a 15-14 deficit to take Game
1.
"They tried. They did some good things, but we just don't have that mental
toughness," Granado said. "Our defense was good _ I think last night was
the most blocks we've had in a game. Jessica Martinez, Stephanie (Herrera),
Mindi (Harrison) and Leslie (Rodriguez) all had blocks, but we're just not
doing enough. We have to find a way to get everything together."
Against OHS, the Eagles stayed closer to the Bronchos in Game 1, but
not before OHS ran off seven straight points on their first rotation. Against
Alpine, the Bucks were able to quickly recover after losing the opening
game and picked up their second victory of the evening. Alpine opened play
with a three-game victory over OHS.
"They (Alpine) don't seem to get rattled the way we do. We get some good
hits, but then we make a lot of mental mistakes like hitting into blocks
and hitting down into the net," said Granado, who added the Eagles also
had problems setting up their spike attempts.
"It's tough to run an offense when the passes are not there. We did OK
with the passes we were getting, but we need to have better passes," she
said.
The loss drops Pecos to 2-9 on the season going into their final tournament.
The Seminole Invitational on Friday and Saturday. The Eagles will face Lamesa,
Midland High and Andrews in pool round play on Friday.
Pecos' junior varsity split their games on Tuesday, losing to Odessa
High, 15-6, 17-15, then defeating Alpine, 15-4, 15-7. The freshmen lost
both their games, 15-9, 16-14 to OHS and 15-7, 15-6 to Alpine.
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