Improved defense, fight positives for Carlsbad

CARLSBAD — Bobby Bates did more than merely serve as Carlsbad’s third volleyball coach since 2013. He instilled a vision designed to make the Cavegirls a relevant name for the long haul.

For starters, Bates preached defense - big time. It sunk in with players, who were quicker in getting to the ball and keeping it in play.

“I think our defense sometimes kept us in the game,” Bates said. “Our defense helped us get more volleys, which gives us more attempts to hit the ball. We got better with our movement. Once we got better with our movement, we were getting in the right position.”

Bates had one key message pertaining to defense: don’t let the ball hit the floor.

“That’s an area of the game that we definitely improved in. I think we’re starting to take a little more pride in it,” Bates said. “With the enthusiasm of ours kids not wanting that to happen, they’re taking more of a challenge. I was happy to see that they’re finally buying into if one sacrifices, the other sacrifices. There were several cases out of the year that we had kids diving to get the ball up. That was definitely a promising sight to see.”

Bates also emphasized a stronger passing game. Throughout the year, Bates said better passing would help Carlsbad be in a better position to apply quick, smart hitting on offense.

Although Carlsbad adjusted fairly fast to what Bates is looking for on defense, the offense was a different story.

Hits were off-target. The passing was unsteady. Carlsbad scraped as many points as they could to reach the fifth set, but sometimes ran into trouble by then. Bates said by that point, Carlsbad (5-15) wasn’t as forceful attacking up front as they should’ve been and struggled to tally points. Bates also said they tended to be too timid whenever those situations arose.

“It’s kind of like we were playing not to lose, instead of playing to win,” Bates said.

Bates said Carlsbad focused a bit too much on not making certain mistakes, such as hitting the ball out of bounds - all while trying to build momentum off opponents’ mistakes.

“The experience, being young, not being in that situation, and being conservative, definitely were things I look back at. Hopefully next year, we won’t have the same results,” Bates said.

There were moments Carlsbad came through on top in those circumstances - such as winning three of its final four district regular season matches in five sets each. Bates said he not only wants to see Carlsbad come away victorious in five-setters, but preferably win matches in three or four sets.

“Those are the cases that we want to go in and be confident,” Bates said.

Carlsbad did win all five of its matches in five sets, but were unable to take care of business in less time than that. Bates said things like service errors and hitting errors prevented Carlsbad from securing wins in three or four sets.

“There’s probably not too many times I can look at it and say we had a string of points of five to seven on service. I didn’t have them very often,” Bates said.

If Carlsbad can clean up the issues the team faced on offense and keep getting quick defensive stops like they did this year, Bates said the potential to be very competitive throughout the state is high - even in a new district with teams like Las Cruces and Mayfield.

Carlsbad will say goodbye to seniors Rylan Gonsalez, Caitlin Carrasco, Gabi Wilson and Kloey Tiller. On the flip side, most of the main group will be back for 2016. Outside hitter Carly Kantrowitz will return for her senior year, while players like TaBor Holcomb, Baylee Lynn, Lindsey Day and Jayda Rodriguez have two years left. Carrie Lynn and Marissa Reyes have three years left.

“It is promising because we do have a lot of kids back with a lot of experience. I do have high expectations, and the kids do too,” Bates said. “I do think we finished the season with a lot of good experience, and that should boost us going into next year.”

CAVEGIRL TEAM AWARDS

MVP: Rylan Gonsalez, senior outside hitter

Offensive player of the year: Caitlin Carrasco, senior setter

Defensive player of the year: Jayda Rodriguez, sophomore middle blocker

Victory with honor: Rylan Gonsalez

Impact player: Marissa Reyes, freshman libero

Heart and soul: Gabi Wilson, senior defensive specialist

CAVEGIRL ALL-DISTRICT AWARDS

First team: Rylan Gonsalez, Jayda Rodriguez

Honorable mention: Caitlin Carrasco, Lindsey Day, Marissa Reyes, Gabi Wilson

Academic: Rylan Gonsalez, Carly Kantrowitz, Gabi Wilson

Current-Argus Sports Editor Matt Hollinshead may be reached at 575-628-5518.