Lady Loboes Prepared for Life Without Standout
    By Jeff Wick, Sports Writer ~~~ Stand-Times, August 16, 2006

Coach Patty Dominguez and her Monahans High School volleyball players are eager to show there is life after Brittany Hughes.

Prior to her graduation this spring, Hughes was, quite simply, the best West Texas volleyball player ever.

"She was really intimidating," said teammate Catherine Curtbirth, one of four returning starters for Monahans.  "Everyone knew who she was.  Everyone knew her name."

In a four-year career at Monahans, Hughes led the Lady Loboes to the state tournament every season and in the process set the national high school record for kills (2,678) and kills per match (17.6) before signing with Texas Tech University.

"It's done.  We enjoyed it," said Dominguez of the Hughes era.  "Now we wish her well at Tech because she's going to do a great job there."

In addition to losing Hughes, the Lady Lobes graduated four other key seniors from last year's state runner-up squad, which went 42-4.

"People assume that since we graduated that big senior class, the kids coming back aren't going to be able to step up," Dominguez said.  "That's a misconception because they will.  They've worked really hard this summer." 

The four starters that return from last year's team are hitters Cutbirth, Bailey Marcum, Bethany Willmon and defensive specialist Dina Ortiz.

"We haven't had a kid really step up and be the type of extreme killer we had with Brittany.  Everybody knew she was going to get the ball," Dominguez said.  "With these three returning hitters, they can each take care of the ball.  We can feed the ball to any one of them."

New to the starting lineup with be outside hitter Jordan Latham and setter Kaitlin Mitchell.

"Jordan's going to raise some eyebrows," Dominguez said.  "Kaitlin's been running the show so far and looking pretty confident doing that."

The road back to state began Tuesday night with a dual match against Lake View and Midland High in Midland.

"It's going to take a lot of hard work to get back to where we've been the last few years," Cutbirth said.  "We have a lot to prove."

"We're looking forward showing that tradition doesn't graduate," Dominguez said.