The Bulldog volleyball team capped off a perfect sweep of District 4-AAAA Thursday with a 3-0 shutout of Lovington on the road.
The ‘Dogs delivered a dominant performance against the Wildcats, making it a quick trip to Lea County — and possibly a visit to Ole Jax — for their fans with wins of 25-11, 25-16 and 25-12.
“How can I complain?” head coach Alan Williams said Saturday. “We went undefeated, so everything went just according to plan. They did good.”
Offensively, McKenna Morrison finished with 16 kills on the night for Artesia, followed by Hattie Harrison with 12 and Lorin Wagner with 10, and Kailyn Owens added a trio of aces from the service line.
Setter Kymber Beltran finished with 40 assists, and Carmen Harvey and Owens logged 14 and 12 digs, respectively.
The win bumped Artesia to 19-3 on the season as they closed out D4 play with an unblemished record of 6-0. The squad had their challenges, needing four games to tackle both Portales and Goddard in their first two outings of the second season and going five rounds with the Rockets Nov. 7 at Ground Zero to clinch the district title. But the girls in orange refused to be denied, buckling down and finding a way to win.
It’s a trait that should serve them well going into the Class 4A State Tournament, where they’re projected to take the top seed. Brackets will be released around 3 p.m. today at nmact.org.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Williams said of the Bulldogs’ championship run. “We started off with a tough one against Portales and had another tough one against Goddard on the road, and those two games were really defining games that helped give us some confidence.
“We have a lot of sick girls and sick coaches right now, but hopefully we can heal up. We really appreciate all the support we’ve had all year long from everybody, and hopefully we can get some more of that at state. We’re looking forward to it. It’s going to be a great challenge.”
