Portales faced Artesia in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Thursday. The Rams took a 3-1 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Bulldogs. Unfortunately, that's the second time they've come up short against the Bulldogs this season, as they also lost their prior matchup 3-1 last Tuesday.
Portales started the match hot and won the first set, but they struggled down the stretch and lost the last three. The match finished with set scores of 15-25, 25-17, 25-13, 25-21.
Portales has been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four contests. That's put a noticeable dent in their 14-7 record this season. Admittedly, the team was facing some tough opposition over that stretch, including 18-2 Goddard (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 68.6% over those games). As for Artesia, the win made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 17-4.
We've got plenty of inter-district action coming up soon. Portales is set to take on their familiar foe Lovington at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. Meanwhile, Artesia will square off against rival Goddard at 6:00 p.m. on Monday.
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