Joseph City Invitational: Rock Point, Valley netters make winner’s bracket

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Oct 13, 2016 | Volleyball |

Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Rock Point setter Varlene Begay (6) battles at the net with Mogollon’s Jillie Manor during the Joseph Invitational on Saturday. Rock Point finished the championship bracket with a 1-2 record.

JOSEPH CITY, Ariz.

The Rock Point Lady Cougars and Valley Lady Pirates came away from the Joseph City Invitational making the winner’s bracket.

Both teams finished pool play in second place during the 15-team volleyball tournament and advanced into the championship bracket. The Lady Cougars were seeded sixth, which was a spot ahead of Valley.

“We gained some good experience in what we needed to do,” Rock Point coach Melvin Arthur said. “I think the one thing we are lacking is talking to each other and that showed during the tournament. If we can communicate more it can increase our performance.”

The Lady Cougars beat Williams, the tournament’s third seed, in the opening round before they were sent into the elimination bracket, losing to a good Mogollon team.

Rock Point then took tournament host Joseph City to the limit before losing in three sets.

The set scores were 25-23, 15-25, 15-12.

“I think we matched up fairly well with every team here but we still need to work on some things,” Arthur said. “Our movement was not there but if we can talk, we can be a better team.”

The Valley Lady Pirates learned a valuable lesson on Saturday.

The Lady Pirates tied the match at one set apiece with a resounding 25-17 win.

Valley coach Julia Six was hoping to ride out on that momentum. But a service error took the wind out of the Pirates’ sail as they trailed Williams 5-1 at the start of the third set.

“We won the coin toss and I told them we needed to get our serves over,” Six said. “I told them once we get the lead, we can work with it but we put our first serve in the net and that brought down our momentum.”

That deficit proved to be too much as Valley was eliminated from further play, losing 25-16, 17-25, 15-8.

“We were in it all the way but it was our serves that killed us,” Six said, while alluding to the seven serving miscues they committed. “It’s been like that for the whole season.

The Pirates finished the match with 19 kills including eight in the second set as they forced a third set with Shevelle Six registering four her team-best nine kills.

The Pirates also had Kiana Swatts finish with six kills as she was named to the all-tournament team.

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