Lady Loboes Repeat as Monahans Tournament Champions
    By Randy Hogan, Staff Writer  ~  The Monahans News - August 22, 2006

The Monahans Lady Lobo volleyball team went undefeated in tournament play during the 33rd Annual 'Tournament of Stars' at the Jerry Larned Sports Complex, downing Midland High in the championship game to win back-to-back titles.

In fact, MHS has owned the tournament title four of the last six years.

Last season the Lady Loboes reclaimed the championship by defeating  the TAPPS defending State champion Lubbock Trinity Christian Lions in dramatic fashion. But Saturday night MHS made a statement that served notice and sent MHS critics crawling for cover.

Perhaps the biggest question that faced MHS coach Patty Dominguez and her 2006 team was "Can Monahans continue to dominate?"

After all, the loss of five seniors that included Texas Tech signee Brittany Hughes, had many Lobo bashers calling for an end to the Green reign on West Texas volleyball. However tradition doesn't graduate.

Monahans (8-0) dismantled the tournament field by winning every game of each match.

The Lady Loboes opened the tournament with a 25-9, 25-6 victory over El Paso Bowie, then battled Class 5A El Paso Montwood to a 27-25, 25-21 semifinal win to send MHS to the Green bracket final.

"We started a little slow against Bowie, " MHS coach Patty Dominguez said.  "They scored the first four points of the game on us.  We started a little sluggish.  Our defense was good, but the offense wasn't really there.

"Montwood challenged us and made us play harder," Dominguez said.  "They were able to stay with us for a while and made us really work for the win."

Monahans faced formed Lady Lobo, Jasso-McCully's Frenship Tigers in the final match of the first round Friday night.

Trailing FHS 6-7 early in game one, senior outside hitter Bethany Willmon blasted the ball just inside the back line to break the Tigers serve and even the game at 7-7.

With Bailey Marcum serving, Catherine Cutbirth and Willmon put up a huge block to thwart the Frenship attack, before Cutbirth followed with a thunderous kill to give Monahans the lead for good.

"Frenship did a really good job of keeping it a game, but our kids just started clicking and putting things together in the match," Dominguez said.

Mc Cully's team kept it close and drew to within 15-13, but MHS displayed persistence by breaking serve and winning the point after a long volley.

In the series, Marcum had a key block followed by an incredible save by Willmon.  Junior Heather Schulz clamed the point on a dink over the net that landed just out of the reach of diving tigers, giving  MHS a 16-13 advantage.

Moments later, junior outside hitter Jordan Latham took the service line and put the ball into play.  After a back-and-forth volley sequence that produced big saves by each team, Latham killed the will of the tiger rally with a smash in front of the Frenship bench to to give Monahans a 17-13 led.

The Lady Loboes pulled away, eventually winning game one of the match 25-17 on a dink over the net by junior setter Kaitlin Mitchell.

Game two looked to be almost a mirror image of the first, as the teams went point-for-point and deadlocked at 7-7.

The Lady Loboes broke the Tiger serve, and Willmon once again nailed a kill to the FHS side of the court to give Monahans a 9-7 advantage.

MHS scored five consecutive points with Dina Ortiz at the service line and pushed their lead to six point.

The Lobo front line of Willmon and Cutbirth proved to be more than Frenship could handle, and Monahans walked away with a 25-13 victory to end the opening round of tournament play.

"They just keep getting better and better," coach Patty Dominguez said.  "Every game they get a little more polished and gain a little more confidence. and it's looking really good."

On Saturday, the Ladies opened the Gold bracket with a 25-11, 27-25 first round victory over Andrews.

The match pitted long time rivals and potential playoff opponents together for the first time in over 20 years.  The Lady Mustangs enter their first year back to Class 3A after a long run in 4A that began in the early 1980's.

"Andrews is a potential playoff contender down the road, so it was important to go out and establish our dominance over them early", Dominguez said.  "It was important to get into their heads now and establish a little intimidation if we meet them in the playoffs".

Monahans once again faced a tough El Paso Montwood team in the semifinal round.  The Rams defeated the two-time defending TAPPS 4A State champion Lubbock Trinity Christian Lions 25-22, 25-9 in coach Marian Bennett's final season at Montwood.

The Lady Loboes overcame a sluggish start, but upended the Rams 25-20, 25-18 to add their name to the tournament final with Midland High.

"Montwood has a fantastic lefty that puts the ball on the floor and really challenged us", Dominguez said.  "We were able to make some adjustments and gained valuable experience working against a good left-hander."

Midland presented no mystery to the Green, as Monahans had to go five games to defeat the Class 5A giant last Tuesday.

Going point-for-point with the Lady Dawgs in game one of the tournament final, Monahans got the break they needed when Midland's Victoria Lucas missed her serve to knot the game at 11-11.

Catherine Cutbirth followed with a monster blast into Bulldog defense to give Monahans the edge 12-11, before picking up another kill to force Midland into a time out.

The Bulldogs fought back and forced another tie an 18-18, before Bailey Marcum stole the momentum with a kill shot in front of Midland's Lindsey Stahl.  The Green then pushed out to a 20-18 lead on a blast from Bethany Willmon.

After a time out by Midland High, the Lady Dawgs orchestrated a rally and eventually took a 20-21 lead over Monahans.

Kaitlin Mitchell made a perfect set to Marcum, and the tournament's outstanding Hitter smashed the ball into the court to tie the game at 22-22.

The final points of the game were hard earned, and displayed the will of an experienced Monahans team.  Cutbirth put up big blocks at the net, and Mitchell made a diving save that lead to Monahans points.

On the final play of the game, Midland's Diana Foster looked to tie the score with a powerful blast, but Cutbirth went high over the net and blocked the kill attempt to give Monahans an emotional 25-23 victory over the Bulldogs.

Feeding off the confidence of the first set victory, Monahans continued to chalk up the blocks, and pounded out kill after kill on the big Lady Dawg front line.

Leading 14-13 Marcum stole the momentum Midland had steadily began to build.  Marcum ran under the set and sent a bomb into the chest of Molly Cherry that could not be returned, and gave MHS a 15-13 advantage.

The Lady Loboes went on to finish the match with big hits from Cutbirth, Latham, and Willmon and claimed the tournament title with a 25-21 victory over Midland High.

"I think we have made some really good progress this week," Dominguez said.  "We are attacking the ball better and making good decisions for only being a week into the season."

The Lady Loboes' return to play Tuesday against Seminole at the Jerry Larned Sports Complex.  Game time is 5:30 pm for 9th and JV, with the Varsity taking the court at 6:30 pm.

Keyed by Kiefer Smith, Senior '06 and Raymond Briseno, Junior '06