Lady Loboes Beat Pecos Clinch District 2-3A Title
   By John Fulbright, Staff Writer ~~ The Monahans News, October 20, 2006

Monahans clinched the District 2-3A title, pulling away from Pecos in Game 1 before winning 25-16, then overcoming a mid-game slump to win Game 2, 25-16, after seeing a 12-1 lead cut at one point to 16-12, and ten holding off a couple of rallies by the Eagles before clinching the victory with a 25-21 win, Tuesday night.

"The key tonight was blockers and dinks," said Eagles' coach Helen Kimbrough.  "They've got good blocker; their elbows were above the net.  We needed to set it off the net and hit it away from the blocks, so we looked for the edges and corners.  But we didn't execute today."

Monahans setter Kaitlin Mitchell helped the Loboes offset a strong start by Pecos' hitters, who were able to find the holes in the early going.

Mitchell scored several points on her own with dinks over Pecos' front line, aside from setting up kills by Catherine Cutbirth and Bailey Marcum and Jordan Latham.

"She's doing such a fantastic job," said Loboes' coach Patty Dominguez. "She's matured so much this season stepping in and taking over the roles.  Her decision-making on the court has come a long way, and I'm excited about what the future holes because of her understanding.

"She teamed up with Catherine on the net, and Catherine carried us," Dominguez said.  She would have a kill and a block of Gabby Garica, after the Eagles opened with kills by Jasmine Rayos and Brittany Rodriguez to grab 2-0 lead.

The score was 10-8 after a spike by Claire Weinacht when a dink by Mitchell started Monahans on a 10-2 run, which included a couple of kills by Cutbirth and ended with another Mitchell dink over Pecos' blockers.

"That's the kind of team they are.  They get that lead and it kind of affects you and my players start thinking they can't catch up," said Kimbrough.  "That's why I had to call a time out and told them they were working too hard to speed things up.  I told them not to try to play as fast as Monahans.  We're trying to get to that level, but we're not there yet."

Cutbirth and Latham would have kills early in Game 2, while the Eagles committed a series of unforced errors, including several net violations, to give the Loboes a 12-1 lead.

Then it was Monahans' turn to make several mistakes, as a spike by Rodriguez started a 10-4 run by Pecos that got them to within four points of the Loboes.

"We had some bad decision making," Dominguez said.  "We just got a little lazy and Pecos took advantage of it.  We had some blocking errors, hitting errors and service reception errors, and that's very uncharacteristic of us."

A spike by Weinacht got the Eagles to within 16-12, but the Eagles then missed a serve and followed that up with a spike into the net and a net violation.  Bethany Willmon and Latham then had kills to widen the margin back to nine points.

In Game 3, the lead changed hands three times in the early going.  Monahans would go up 6-4 on kills by Cutbirth and Latham, but spikes by Weinacht and Adrianna Armendariz and a couple of bad hits by Marcum allowed the Eagles to grab 7-6 and 8-7 leads.

Two more Latham and Cutbirth spikes would put the Loboes ahead to stay, and the lead would reach a may as five points, at 18-13 and 20-15.  But a block by Willmon by Armendariz and a couple of errors by  the Loboes would get the Eagles back to within two, at 21-19.

A tip over the block by Cutbirth and another dink by Mitchell stopped the run, and while Pecos would get two more points on a bad spike by Cutbirth and a serve into the net by Mitchell, a block of Rayos by Latham and a net violation by Rodriguez would close out the match for the Loboes.

The win improved Monahans to 5-0 in district and 36-3 on the season, while Pecos drops to 3-2 in district and 23-8 on the season.

Presidio clinched the final playoff spot in District 2-3A on Tuesday with a sweep of Fort Stockton, and can force a playoff for second with the Eagles if they can win next Tuesday night in Presidio.

The Loboes, meanwhile, will be trying to complete another undefeated district season on Tuesday, when they host Fort Stockton in their final regular season home game.

Dominguez said the presentation of the district championship trophy would take place following Tuesday's match, and the Loboes have scheduled a playoff practice game for Halloween night against Denver City on the Mustangs' home court, on the night Pecos and Presidio will be playing their bi-district volleyball matches against Fabens, Anthony or Tornillo.

Keyed by Kiefer Smith and Christian Porras, Seniors '07