Gold winners: Tuba outslugs Tohatchi in title game

REHOBOTH, N.M.

The Tuba City volleyball team left the 20-team Alexandra DeArmond Volleyball Tournament with plenty of hardware.

Tuba City captured the gold bracket of the Rehoboth Christian volleyball tournament on Saturday night by outlasting Tohatchi in four sets. Individually, the Lady Warriors had five players receive awards as they landed four players of the all-tournament team while sophomore outside hitter Vanisha Bitsinnie was tabbed the tournament’s MVP.

“Honestly, this broke my heart because I didn’t think I was going to get this (award), but I was trying my best and I was going after ever ball,” Bitsinnie said. “When I heard that I was MVP, I got very emotional because I put everything I had on the court.”

The all-tourney team for Tuba City included senior Thalia Clitso, freshman Yasmine Ataya and sophomores AuRaiya Granger and Nakota Tallman.

Those players were instrumental in leading Tuba to a hard fought 24-26, 25-22, 25-19, 25-21 win in the tournament title game as the Warriors outslug Tohatchi 51-to-29 in kills.

“Tohatchi did a great job,” first-year Tuba City coach Kristen Balcerek said. “They’re scrappy. They didn’t let any balls drop. They were hustling after everything, so kudos to them. They gave it their all and they did a really good job, especially in the first set.”

In that set, Tohatchi flipped the script and erased a 17-7 deficit and stunned Tuba with a 26-24 win. The Cougars started off a bit shaky as Tuba controlled the tenor of the match with 10 early kills, including two each from Bitsinnie.

But as the set wore on, Tohatchi was able to extend some rallies with their superb defensive coverage.

“I think we were a bit nervous and stiff coming out,” Tohatchi coach Jonath Gee said. “But when we got our passes under control, we were able to take advantage of our front line.

“You know, our middle hitters, Hailey (Greymountain) and Bobbi (Yazzie) brought us back when our passes got to our setters,” he added. “That was the game plan to begin with and that is how we got back into it, one point at a time.”

In the second set, Tuba got out to an 11-5 advantage behind three kills from Nakota Tallman, but the Cougars countered with a 15 to 9 rally to even the score at 20-all on a dink kill from Greymountain.

The Warriors, however, closed out the set on a 5-2 run with Ataya doing most of the damage as she delivered three of her nine kills during that stretch.

In the third, Tohatchi went on a 5-0 run with Yazzie putting across four service aces for a 14-10 cushion as Tuba had to burn a timeout.

The Warriors responded with a run of their own, tying the game at 16-all behind a slew of hits, which included two kills by Bitsinnie.

With the momentum, Tuba used a 9-3 run to close out the third set with a 25-19 win.

The Balcerek-coached team carried that momentum into the fourth set by nabbing a 7-0 advantage as Tohatchi had issues with its serve-receive.

“They made a huge run on us, and they had some tough serves,” Gee said of Tuba. “They’re fundamentally skilled and their serves were tough and so we had to get our serve-receive under control.”

The Cougars did exactly that as they fought their way to an 8-8 stalemate. And although Tuba led for the rest of the set, Tohatchi stayed within striking distance as the Cougars made one final push and tied the game at 20-all.

But Tuba closed the door on the Cougars with a 5-1 run to win in four sets.

“We just had to buckle down, and make sure that we stayed mentally tough in the big moments when the rallies got really long,” Balcerek said of pulling out the win.

Tuba City had two players with double-digit kills led by Clitso, who finished with 16 kills. Bitsinnie added 10 and Ataya had nine.

For Tohatchi, Greymountain had a team-best 13 kills and Destiny Jackson finished with seven.

Despite coming up short, Gee said he was proud of his team for not giving up.

“We knew what type of program Tuba has, and their history in Arizona and so this was a good experience win or lose,” the Tohatchi coach said. “They played at a faster pace, but it was good for us. I’m just proud of the girls that we won one (set) and we were close. We led each set, but we had some errors. It’s just the small stuff that we need to fix.”

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