The Ruidoso Warrior volleyball team was unable to get started or sustain any momentum in its 25-19, 25-19, 25-10 loss to the Artesia Bulldogs on Oct. 7 at Ruidoso High School.

Neither team came out firing on all cylinders, as the team traded scores through the first 16 points of the first set for an 8-all tie before Brooklynne Ivans got the serve and the Bulldogs (13-3) got a decisive kill from Kailee Padilla to take a 12-8 lead and not trail the rest of the way.

“We just didn’t have the fight tonight,” said Ruidoso coach Rory Arisumi. “That just happens sometimes. You have good nights and bad nights, peaks and valleys.”

Even after that, both teams struggled to put together a long run before Talyn Ramos got the serve for Ruidoso (7-8) to make it a 20-18 match. But Artesia was able to close it out with another kill from Padilla and an ace serve by Jenna Whitmire to put the frame away for the Bulldogs.

“Honestly, we just met a very good team,” Arisumi said of Artesia. “They’re not a very big team, but all six of their starters are very athletic.”

Set two started out much the same as the first, with Ruidoso leading 9-7 before Ashton Craft got the serve and the Bulldogs rattled off six straight points to take the lead for good.

Artesia coach Alan Williams said hitting and service errors made each set closer than it would have otherwise been. The Bulldogs are coming off two losses against St. Pius and District 4-4A rival Goddard at a tournament in Albuquerque over the weekend.

“The loss against Goddard really hurt,” Williams said. “We need to fix our hitting errors and stop keeping teams in it. I liked our defense and how we pass the ball, setting the ball was good. We’re just making too many hitting errors.”

The third set was when things went south for the Warriors. Artesia put together consistent scoring runs and was never seriously threatened. A pair of kills by Madison Lutterman got Ruidoso into double digits, but were trailing the Bulldogs 22-10 at that point.

Three straight Warrior errors brought the match to a close.

This match came on the heels of Ruidoso’s three-set loss at Silver on Oct. 3, in a contest Arisumi felt they could have won. The Warriors lost sets one and three, 26-24, including a run in the final set that saw Ruidoso survive five straight match-point serves to tie it at 24-all.

“Things that we can control, like our unforced errors, we didn’t do a very good job of controlling there,” Arisumi said of the said of the Silver match. “Like serving, for example. We missed six serves in the first set, and we lost it by two points. That pretty much tells the story right there.”

Ruidoso hosts Lovington on Saturday in a 1 p.m. start, while the Bulldogs are at Hobbs tonight for a 6 p.m. match.

Todd Fuqua is Editor for the Ruidoso News and can be reached on Instagram at @toadfox1.

JT Keith
Artesia Daily Press
jtkeith@elritomedia.com

Coach aims to leave a legacy in players’ lives

In the Oct. 7 coaches’ poll, the Artesia Bulldogs are ranked No. 1 in District 5A with 110 points and 11 first-place votes, followed by District 2-5A rivals Roswell at No. 2 and Lovington at No. 3. There is still a lot of football left in the next three weeks, and each team will face off against the others to determine who will win the district and advance to the playoffs.

Bulldogs football coach Jeremy Maupin said he ignores the polls and that his main goal is to improve his team by tournament time.

Artesia (6-1, 4-0 in District 2-5A) has played in the championship game the last four years. Maupin said his team is setting “The Bulldog Standard,” the team’s new motto this season. Every letter in their mascot name stands for something different:

B-Be the best version of you

U-Unity

L-Leadership

L-Loyalty

D-Discipline

O-Off the field, what you do matters

G-Grit

“As a department, we are using that as a standard and fitting all we want and making it happen,” Maupin said. “People make fun of us because we all wear the same-colored cleats and our socks are the same, but that’s unity. That’s something we feel separates us when we walk down the ramp; we look like one unit. We can find something meaningful in all those words.”

Maupin acknowledges that the Artesia coaches have a significant impact on the athletes who play for them for four years, and he wants his players to become good men, husbands and fathers, as well as productive citizens in society.

Maupin does not want his athletes’ most significant accomplishment to be winning a high school championship, and that’s it. Maupin said he wants his athletes to use high school as a platform to build a successful life.

“I will have the team over to my house during the season,” Maupin said. “I want them to see they can have good, clean fun without doing some of the things society says is fun. I love our team, and we have good young men, which is why I will have them to my family’s home during the season. We want to prepare our players for life and to be successful after they leave high school.”

JT Keith
Artesia Daily Press
jtkeith@elritomedia.com

Artesia junior Estrella Gutierrez, a defender on the Artesia girls soccer team, played a lot of soccer this summer.

She traveled to Colorado and Minnesota, competing in the US Club Soccer NPL U16 Finals in Commerce City, Colo., and the Target USA CUP in Blaine, Minn.

Gutierrez said it was a fantastic experience getting to play for the second consecutive year against elite competition.

She said that her goal is to play in college, and this experience is what college soccer would be like. Gutierrez wants to use her experience to help strengthen the Lady Bulldogs soccer team.

“Not very many players have had this type of opportunity,” Gutierrez said. “I want to share the many different skills and tips I learned with my teammates and coaches and become more of a leader.”

In the NPL U16 Finals, Gutierrez played for Sting WTX Olivarez 09G, based out of Lubbock, Texas.

They played in the Red River National Premier League in Dallas and secured first place in the 2024-25 season, qualifying for the national tournament. There were 16 teams in their age group from Florida, New Jersey and California.

In the Target USA CUP, she played with her travel team, Select Chicas 08/09G. The Chicas are a U17 Select team from Anchorage, Alaska, coached by Steve Day. The team includes girls from Alaska, but also welcomes girls from across the country who play competitive soccer and aspire to play in college. It gives them exposure in most major showcases across the U.S.

The Target USA CUP is the largest youth soccer tournament in the U.S., with more than 1,200 teams from 17 countries.

Gutierrez said that playing in the nationals is more challenging than playing in high school because some girls representing other countries are bigger and faster than some of the girls in high school here.

“Playing in the USA CUP helps me to be able to play against all types of players from all around the world,” Gutierrez said. “Not knowing any of the girls on the team helps you.”

By playing in the club and for the national team, Gutierrez said that it will help her know what to do on the field during games and how to create plays.

“I would like to be a better teammate this year,” Gutierrez said. “I would like to score and give more assists.”

JT Keith can be reached at 575-420-0061, or on X @JTKEITH1.