By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The district title was on the line for the Lady Tigers Thursday evening as they hosted the Desert Academy Lady Wildcats but after five games the district title was still in limbo and will be determined Monday evening probably in Las Vegas at a neutral site.
The JV faired a bit better than the varsity Thursday evening but it took them three games to pull out the win. Raton took the first game very handily but lost the second game after Desert Academy took the lead after several ties. Raton finished off the tie breaker by taking the lead after the game was tied up to six. After that Raton took the lead and pulled it out for the win.
JV
Desert Academy 7 25 9
Raton 25 19 15
The varsity girls looking for a win to clinch the district title fell short in the first game as they simply couldn’t get things to gel and fell behind early on in game one. The ladies had trouble at the net as well with several blocks falling to the Lady Tiger side of the floor and missed spikes. Game two was a bit better as the Lady Tigers kept it close with the ballgame being tied several times before Raton pulled out the squeaker.
Game three found the Lady Wildcats wonder what happened as Raton took the early lead and simply powered through the game. This time it was Raton’s turn to get the spikes through the blocks to find the holes and send the blocked balls back over. Game four was a repeat of game three with the Lady Tigers taking an early lead and holding off the Lady Wildcats with strong play at the net. The back ladies made the passes to get it up front for the setters to set it up.
With the match tied at 2-2 it came down to the tie breaker. Raton started out the scoring but quickly fell behind by five. Wait what’s this? The Lady Tigers found a rhythm and began scoring against the Lady Wildcats and came to within one at 13-12. The crowd came alive with many of the Raton football boys leading the cheers but to no avail as the Lady Wildcats held on to win the tie breaker 15-13.
The district meeting will be held in Pecos on Sunday October 29, to determine the district playoff schedule. Raton will meet Desert Academy again on Monday October 30, to determine the district title. The winner of that match will host the district championship match probably on Friday.
Varsity
Desert Academy 25 25 13 18 15
Raton 16 22 25 25 13
