Centennial, Mayfield girls advance in state soccer tournament
LAS CRUCES - The Centennial and Mayfield girls soccer teams won Class 5A state soccer tournament first-round games this weekend.
The No. 6 seeded Centennial girls soccer team defeated No. 11 Clovis 1-0 on Friday at the Field of Dreams Soccer Complex. The No. 8 Mayfield girls soccer team beat No. 9 Cleveland 2-1 on Saturday at the Field of Dreams Soccer Complex.
Centennial advanced to play No. 3 La Cueva in the state quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m., on Wednesday at the Bernalillo Soccer Complex. Mayfield will play No. 1 Volcano Vista at 11:30 a.m., on Wednesday in Bernalillo.
On the boys side, the No. 2 Mayfield boys soccer team will play a state quarterfinal match at 3 p.m., on Wednesday in Bernalillo. Gadsden beat Oñate 3-1 in the first round and the No. 5 Panthers will play No. 4 Cleveland at 3 p.m., on Wednesday.
In Class 4A, No. 5 Chaparral beat No. 12 Highland 1-0 in the first round to advance to the quarterfinals against No. 4 Los Lunas at 10 a.m., on Wednesday.
In Class A-3A, the No. 5 Hatch Valley boys beat No. 12 Rehoboth Christian 9-1 in the first round. Hatch Valley will play No. 4 Monte Del Sol Charter in the quarterfinals at 12:30 p.m., on Wednesday.
Las Cruces and Centennial to play one-match playoff for District 3-5A volleyball title
The Las Cruces and Centennial volleyball teams will play at 6 p.m., on Monday at Oñate to determine the regular season champion and No. 1 seed for next week's District 3-5A tournament. The winner of Monday's match will host the district tournament semifinals at 6 p.m., on Thursday and the winner will have a home match on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
The Bulldawgs and Hawks each closed District 3-5A play 11-1 and split in the regular season.
Las Cruces closed the regular season on Saturday with a 25-13, 25-13, 25-12 victory over Mayfield.
The Hawks beat Gadsden 25-10, 25-16, 25-21 on Saturday. Andreya Hesser had eight kills and three blocks, Tess Fuqua had eight kills, Peyton Holst had 10 kills and two blocks, Alexie Stiles had eight kills and two service aces and Cora Dubois had 31 assists.
Oñate boys win district cross country meet
The Oñate boys won the district cross country meet on Saturday at Deming, qualifying the entire team for next week's state meet in Rio Rancho.
The Centennial boys finished second and Alamogordo was third to also qualify for state.
The Centennial girls and Oñate girls also qualified for state with a Top 3 team finish. The Hawks were second behind Alamogordo and Oñate finished third.
Mayfield's Nickolas Yacone won the boys district title with a 15:52.39 and Centennial's Jessica Rios won the girls race in 19:24.06.
New Mexico State volleyball wins 13th straight
EDINBURG, Texas – The New Mexico State volleyball team swept UT Rio Grande Valley 25-23, 25-14, 25-19 to win its 13th-straight match and stay unbeaten in conference play in Edinburg, Texas, on Saturday.
“We started slow defensively in the first set but served our way back into it,” said head coach Mike Jordan. “I’m pretty happy with the defensive effort after that, to hold a team like that to 20 kills is pretty impressive defensive work.”
After the Aggies (21-3, 12-0 WAC) Scored the match’s first two points, UT Rio Grande Valley (13-13, 7-5) went on a 6-0 run to take a 6-2 lead. NM State battled back, making it 15-12 at the media timeout after a block from Julianna Salanoa and Cat Kelly and a kill from Savannah Davison. Then, New Mexico State scored three-straight points out of the media timeout to tie up the set at 15.
The Vaqueros continued to take advantage of the Aggies’ poor play in serve-receive and found themselves leading 23-21. However, Ashley Anselmo hit two kills before Davison ended the set with a kill of her own for a 25-23 NM State victory in the first set.
New Mexico State started the second set strong, racing out to a 7-2 lead. The Vaqueros brought it back to 11-8 before the Aggies erupted. NM State scored the next eight points, including three service aces from Natalie Mikels to open a 19-8 lead. New Mexico State cruised from there with back-to-back kills from Lia Mosher and Cat Kelly ending the set 25-14.
The third set was all Aggies to start as a Davison kill sparked a 6-0 run to begin the set. UT Rio Grande Valley continued to battle and pulled within 12-9. NM State then opened a 16-10 lead before a rally from the Vaqueros made it 16-14. The two sides battled on with the Aggies leading 20-19. Then, NM State scored the last five point of the set, capped by another ace from Mikels, to end the set 25-19 and complete the sweep.
New Mexico State was led by Davison who finished the match with 10 kills. Megan Hart added nine kills on .643 hitting while Kelly also notched nine kills. Mikels wrapped up the match with four service aces while Julianna Salanoa finished with five blocks.
The Aggies remain on the road with a trip to CSU Bakersfield on Thursday at 8 p.m. and Grand Canyon on Saturday at 2 p.m.