Volleyball: Monahans dominates Lubbock Cooper in 3-game sweep

GREENWOOD The Monahans Lady Loboes are headed to the Region I-3A Volleyball Tournament for the sixth consecutive year, which makes senior Bailey Marcum a perfect 4-for-4 in her career.

“It’s exciting every time,” the senior said.

Monahans punched this ticket with a 25-14, 25-18, 25-17 sweep of Lubbock Cooper in a regional quarterfinal playoff match Tuesday night in the Greenwood High School gym.

Monahans will play in the regional semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Lubbock Christian Univer-sity’s Rip Griffin Center and will try to reach the regional final for the sixth straight season.

The Lady Loboes (33-10) had to fight through some tight spots early in Games 1 and 3 but pre-vailed behind a defense that made it hard for the Lady Pirates (29-7) to finish points and behind a solid night from senior setter Kaitlin Mitchell and an array of hitters.

Jordan Latham had 13 kills, Marcum had 12 kills and Heather Schulz had seven kills for Mona-hans. Mitchell had 36 assists plus five kills on setter dumps.

“I think we did really good,” Marcum said. “I was proud of the way we played. We worked on some things (Monday), and I think we did a good job of executing.”

Monahans made life tough on Cooper with an efficient serve-receive offense. The Lady Loboes scored in bunches off of serve receive, and the Lady Pirates scored just 15 of its 49 points on serve.

Kimberli Harger had 14 kills and April Ehlers had 16 assists for Cooper, which lost to Monahans in the regional quarterfinals for the second consecutive season.

Monahans also went on several runs on serve, led by five aces from Latham.

While happy with the sweep, Monahans coach Patty Dominguez said she hopes for better performances down the line.

“I thought on serve receive we had some moments where we did a really good job, and there were other moments where Kaitlin really had to work,” Dominguez said. “What I was looking for was more precision. I didn’t think we were as precise passing-wise as we can be. We’ve got to take care of that.”

The method worked well enough to get Monahans back to Lubbock. Now, the Lady Loboes will try to win two more times to get back to the Class 3A state tournament in San Marcos for the fifth time in six years, all under Dominguez.

Class 3A Regional Quarterfinals

Monahans def. Lubbock Cooper

25-14, 25-18, 25-17

Tuesday, At Greenwood High School

Kills — Cooper: Kimberli Harger 14, April Ehlers 7, Kathryn Stroud 4, Mia Crawford 3, Laura Cloud 1, Amanda Kitten 1, Kandice Bowie 1. Monahans: Bailey Marcum 13, Bailey Marcum 12, Heather Schulz 7, Kaitlin Mitchell 6, Shelbi Cornelius 5, Kristi Holly 2, Kati Holly 1.

Blocks — Cooper: Kimberli Harger 1, Amanda Kitten 1, April Ehlers 0.5, Mia Crawford 0.5. Monahans: Bailey Marcum 1, Heather Schulz 1, Kristi Holly 0.5, Kati Holly 0.5, Kaitlin Mitchell 0.5, Jordan Latham 0.5.

Assists — Cooper: April Ehlers 16, Amanda Kitten 13. Monahans: Kaitlin Mitchell 36.

Aces — Cooper: April Ehlers 1, Kandice Bowie 1. Monahans: Jordan Latham 5, Heather Schulz 1, Kaitlin Mitchell 1, Bailey Marcum 1.

Service points — Cooper: April Ehlers 6, Kandice Bowie 4, Kathryn Stroud 2, Sarah Bednarz 2, Amanda Kitten 1. Monahans: Jordan Latham 10, Kati Holly 8, Kristi Wilson 7, Bailey Marcum 5, Heather Schulz 5, Kaitlin Mitchell 4.