Junior High Volleyball Teams split win/loss vs Eunice
By John Earp
The first game (Gold Team) began well for the Junior High Lady Panthers with them advancing 7-3 in the first few minutes. The Lady Cardinals then rallied back a bit, but Jal then pulled further ahead, 10–6. The Eunice girls were just not as sharp overall as the Lady Panthers through most of the first game, making more mistakes more often than the Jal team. The Lady Panthers pulled ahead 18-11, and stayed on track with the same momentum they had had from the start. However, when the Lady Panthers had been up 23-16, they began making several mistakes, with Eunice gaining three points in a row. Timeout was called by Coach Navarrette for the Lady Panthers. Eunice then proceeded to gain two more points, before Jal got the ball back with a score of 24-21. The Cardinals flubbed a return, giving the Lady Panthers the win.
The second game for the Gold Team started out better for the Cardinals, who led 11-4 within the first few minutes. The Lady Panthers seemed to be missing all the things they had had in the first game. Timeout was called by Coach Navarrette. Unfortunately for the Lady Panthers Gold Team, they never really could get their act together in the second game, losing it 25-8. In the third and final game, the Blue Team unfortunately continued to play like they did in the second game, losing by a large margin.
The first game of the next match (Blue Team) started out very competitively, with the score being more or less tied back and forth for the first several minutes, eventually being tied at 7. The game continued at the same pace, with the score being tied repeatedly, eventually being tied at 16. The competition was very well matched. After a timeout called by Eunice, the Lady Panthers began to really gain momentum, moving ahead 20-16 before yet another timeout was called by Eunice. The Lady Panthers continued with their streak, gaining four more unanswered points. The final score of the first game was 25-16, with a win for Jal.
The second game of the second match started out with close competition as well, with the lead going back and forth several times in the opening minutes, eventually being tied at 8. The Lady Panthers then began to pull ahead, and about halfway through the game the score was 15-10, with some very effective serving and returning by the Jal girls. Eunice called a timeout after Jal scored two more points. The Lady Panthers continued to extend their lead, and in what looked to be the closing minutes of the game, they led 20-11. Eunice then got a spurt of momentum, scoring four unanswered points. Eunice once again began to gain some points, however, but the Lady Panthers pulled it out with a win, 25-18, winning the match 2 out of 3.