JASON FARMER
NEWS-SUN

HOBBS – In 2002, Harrison Ford started in a historical submarine movie named “K-19: The Widowmaker”. Tuesday night in Tasker Arena, Kyndle Cunningham didn’t make anyone a widow, but the senior volleyball player who wears jersey

No. 12 sure racked up a lot of kills. By the time Lady Eagles had beaten Artesia, there were a ton of K-12s in the scorebook.

Savannah Stockton-Gonzales, the Lady Eagles coach, was excited to see her team come away with the victory in a five-set match.

“It is always exciting when you get to go to those five-set matches,” she said. “You get to see if your girls can really battle for that long. It was about two hours and they can battle it out with the best of them. I am really excited to see where the season takes us.”

The Lady Eagles dropped the opening set, falling 25-23, but bounced back to win the second set 25-21. Hobbs dominated the third set, winning by a score of 25-7. The Lady Eagles then dropped the fourth set, falling 25-19, but won

the deciding fifth set 15-13.

“Artesia is a good ball club. Coach Williams does a really good job over there,” Stockton-Gonzales said. “We know that they are always going to be pretty sound, but after this last weekend, we have kind of gotten into a really good groove and found a new rotation that is working out for us.”

Cunningham, who has moved into a setter role with Hobbs following an injury to Annette Rey, finished the night with 14 kills. Seven of her kills, and one of her two blocks, came in Hobbs’ dominating third set.

“We moved her to the other setter position,” Stockton-Gonzales said, “and she is doing a really good job of putting it where our hitters can hit it as well. It hurt when Annette (Rey) got hurt, our other setter, but Kyndle stepped up and is doing a really great job.”

In Hobbs’ two losses, the Lady Eagles battled all the way to the end.

“We have done a really good job of if we are behind, when somebody else has game-point, we have really been able to battle back,” the Lady Eagles’ coach said. “So, don’t put us out when you get game-point. Don’t expect us to just roll over and give it to you. We are going to battle back and try to take it from you as much as we can.”

Facing game-point in the first set, the Lady Eagles trailed Artesia 24-18. While they still lost, the Lady Eagles scored five points after Artesia reached game-point, losing 25-23.

Then, in the fourth set, Hobbs trailed 10-3 before battling back to a 12-11 deficit. Artesia countered, putting the Lady Eagles in a 19-11 hole, but Hobbs once again battled back, closing the gap to 19-16 before eventually losing.

But, even at the end, the Lady Eagles didn’t give up. With Artesia looking at game-point, leading 24-18, the Lady Eagles scored once more before falling 25-19.

“I’ll give it to Artesia,” Stockton-Gonzales said of the fourth set. “They had their block on us and we were not ready. They just kept blocking us. We were quite covering their hitters and their block was really on it.”

“That was probably our most impressive game,” the Artesia coach said. “I know we won Game No. 1, but that Game No. 4 was a great game for us.

By winning the fourth set and evening the game at 2-2, Artesia forced a winner-take-all fifth set.

“I was really proud of them coming back in game four and just really competing after playing so bad in game three,” Artesia coach Alan Williams said. “Game four was just a great game for us.”

After losing the opening set, the Lady Eagles bounced back and won the second set, taking in 25-21. Hobbs jumped out to a 2-0 lead and never trailed on its way to evening the match at 1-1.

The third set was interesting as Hobbs and Artesia traded points early on. While the Lady Eagles never trailed, they didn’t take their first two-point lead until going up 5-3. Artesia had several service errors during the early part of set three that kept the game close.

After Artesia closed the gap to 8-6, the Lady Eagles went on a 13-point run. The Lady Eagles got the first point after taking the serve away from Arteisa. Then, with Ellie Lentz serving, the Lady Eagles pushed their lead to 21-6.

During that time, Cunningham recorded four kills and a block. Jayla David also had two kills and a block during that run.

“Ellie Lentz was serving and she did a really great job for us,” the Lady Eagles’ coach said. “That kiddo has struggled the past couple of weeks on her serve, but tonight, she found it and I am so proud of her. She was on it and she was picking on that little libero over there and they couldn’t handle it. She did a really good job and I am proud of her.”

Artesia finally ended Hobbs’ run, but the damage was done as Hobbs held a commanding 21-7 lead. The Lady Eagles also got the serve right back, closing out the set with a four more points for a 25-7 win and a 2-1 lead in the match.

Tied 2-2, the Lady Eagles and Lady Bulldogs had to play a deciding fifth set.

During the final set, Hobbs and Artesia again traded points early, but it was Hobbs who took the first real lead, going up 7-3 and 8-4. But it was short-lived as Artesia not only battled back, knotting the match at 8-8, but also

putting Hobbs in a two-point deficit at 10-8. The Lady Eagles were able to knot the set at 10-10 and never trailed again, winning 15-13.

“Don’t count us out. We are going to battle back. We are going to fight and we are going to try and take it from you,” Stockton-Gonzales said. “I think that is the difference between last year and this year, we have more grit. We are going to go after it. It doesn’t matter if we are down 10-2 or up 10-2, we are going to battle for every point.”

“We had our chances here in game five,” the Artesia coach said. “We just missed our last two serves and you cant do that when it is 13-12 or 14-13.”

David finished the night with 13 kills and two blocks while Brianna Dunlap had four kills. Zayla Mitchell recorded four aces and a kill while Isabella Miller had three kills and three blocks. Anaya Vaughn also had two kills and a block.

With the loss, Artesia falls to 5-2 on the season. Next up for the Lady Bulldogs is a trip to Carlsbad on Tuesday. Game time is set for 6 p.m.

“Other than the one (set) where we didn’t show up, it was a battle both ways,” Williams said. “I really thought we played well. (The third set) was really an anomaly compared to the rest of the match.”

Williams spoke highly of senior Hattie Harrison’s play Tuesday night.

“Hattie Harrison had a great game outside,” the Artesia coach said. “She had a fantastic game. I think this was probably the best game I have seen her play. I am proud of her.”

With the win, Hobbs is now 2-0 at home and 4-6 on the season. The Lady Eagles will be back in action on Thursday when Centennial (3-3) comes to town for a 5:30 start at Tasker Arena.