Monte del Sol volleyball advances; Escalante nabs No. 2 seed in football

District tournaments for high school volleyball kicked off Monday night and for Monte del Sol, the beat goes on.

Seeded third in the District 2-3A draw, the Lady Dragons (9-11) snapped a four-match losing streak with a 3-1 win over McCurdy in the tournament’s opening round. It sends Monte into the semifinals against No. 2 seed Santa Fe Preparatory School. The winner of that match heads to Dulce later in the week for the district title.

Talia Flaherty and Lizbeth Nava tied for the team high with 12 kills apiece. Flaherty added five digs and three blocks while Nava had 10 digs and 15 assists.

The Lady Dragons were pounded in the opening game, 25-9 but rallied to win the last three, 25-16, 25-23, 25-19.

“I thought, after Game 1 losing so bad, we did a good job coming back,” said Monte del Sol head coach Chela Butler.

Devina Gonzales and Emi Fukuda chipped in with 11 kills each while Vianey Garcia had a match-high 19 digs.

FOOTBALL

Playoffs: As expected, the Escalante Lobos got the No. 2 seed in the Class 2A state playoffs, which starts this weekend.

Escalante (9-1) was undefeated until losing to Fort Sumner/ House in its regular season finale. That loss dropped the Lobos to No. 2 and a home game in the state semifinals against No. 3 Jal (4-5). Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday in Tierra Amarilla.

The winner heads to the state championship game the following week against either Fort Sumner/House (9-0) and No. 4 Lordsburg (3-6).

The four playoff teams are the only clubs in 2A to actually win a game all season. The remaining three teams combined to go 0-19.