LAS CRUCES – Las Cruces coach Keith Leupold knows that volleyball has its highs and lows.
And with the Bulldawgs beating Centennial in the championship of the Jane Leuopld Sweet 16 tournament Saturday afternoon, Leupold doesn’t want his team to get too high after beating the Hawks for the first time since 2018. Senior Alexis Masses and junior libero Ainzley Doolittle led the Bulldawgs back from a two-games-to-one deficit to claim the tournament title. Las Cruces went on to win the fourth set 25-20, and the final set 15-9.
“It’s always nice to beat a Centennial team… to come and get a win (against them) right way this year it’s good for us,” Leupold said. “They’re always well prepared. (Centennial head coach) Al Rosen always does a great job with them.”
With Centennial coming off a district championship last season, Leupold knew that his team had to fight. “I thought we battled,” he said. “I thought we dug a lot of balls and countered with Centennial all game.”
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The championship game, which took place on Centennial’s campus, started off back and forth with Centennial winning the first set 25-22, then Las Cruces scraping their way to win the second 25-23.
“I’ve been so proud of my team this year,” Massey said. “They have been working so hard in and out of practice … and this tournament win has significant value to our coach so to take it home, especially for us seniors, it’s really cool.”
Massey, who is committed to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, knows that Centennial is a powerhouse in volleyball and knows this victory means lot to the teams’ momentum. “For the past couple years Centennial has been the top team in our district so to beat them gets us past that mental block,” Massey said. “Now were able to move on and continue to bigger things.”
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After the match, Leupold praised his team for the resilience and effort they showed throughout the whole game, even while they were missing a key player.
“Mytzelth Morales was unable to play for us today and Kaselle Davis came in and had a big match for us,” he said. “That was huge for us.”
Going back into the regular season Leupold sees this win as a stepping-stone for the rest of the year. “(This win) encourages us,” Leupold said. “We already knew we were a pretty good team. This adds to the that idea that we are in the hunt for very big things.”
Las Cruces will look to build on their momentum and take on Hobbs here in town on Tuesday Sep. 6, while Centennial will have a break and play Hobbs on Thursday Sep. 15
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