Lady Cougars come up one game short of making 3A semis

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – Expectations for the Tohatchi volleyball program have been ramped up.

Known for its girls basketball program that has won two state titles, the Lady Cougar netters put together an impressive run during last week’s New Mexico Class 3A state volleyball tournament.

Tohatchi went 3-2 overall in the double elimination tournament held at the Rio Rancho Events Center. The Lady Cougars fell short to state powerhouses Santa Fe St. Michael’s and Hot Springs, the tournament’s top two seeds, respectively.

“This is a great stepping stone for our program,” said second-year Tohatchi coach Jonath Gee, whose team finished with a 23-5 record. “We have some outstanding seniors, but I also have key returners coming back. I’m glad they were here to experience this and now we’re gonna build on that.”

It’s been years since Tohatchi has made the state playoffs and they made their stay memorable.

“This is the first time in our school history that we’ve gone this far in the sport of volleyball,” Gee said.

Tohatchi entered the state playoffs as the ninth seed. Even so, the Lady Cougars were one win away from making the final four round, which is played under a single-elimination format.

The Gee-coached team fell to the Hot Springs Lady Tigers in straight sets on Saturday morning, ending Tohatchi’s state tournament run.

The set scores were 25-14, 25-15 and 25-21.

“We played with our hearts out, but I think fatigue took its toll on us,” Gee said. “We played five matches in three days with two of those games going five sets.

“We had some spurts to where we had the energy to hit the ball, but at the same time we had some mental breakdowns and that comes from being tired. We did the best we can and that is all you can ask from the girls.”

After losing the first set by 11 points, the Lady Cougars fell into an early hole, trailing Hot Springs 8-0 in the second set.

“The server in the second set just killed us,” Gee said of Lady Tiger libero Arianna Alaniz. “She’s a crafty server and she knows how to place the ball with her serves. We just couldn’t get out of that rotation and we got too far behind.”

Despite that early deficit, Tohatchi battled back with senior outside hitter Marisa Denetso serving across seven straight points that tied the game at 11-all.

“We had to fight back,” Denetso said. “We knew we’re capable of catching back up, so we fixed some of the mistakes we were making.”

Tohatchi stayed within striking distance at 16-14 until Alaniz went back to serve. The Lady Tigers scored eight straight to end the set. In that run, Alaniz had a pair of aces while her teammates hammered down five kills.

In the third set, Tohatchi gained an early 5-0 advantage behind a pair of kills from Denetso.

After an 11-6 run by Hot Springs, the two squads traded side outs with Tohatchi earning its last lead at 19-18 on a swing by senior Crra Cecil.

The Lady Tigers capped the set on a game-ending 7-2 run to complete the sweep.

“They’re fundamentally sound and they’re a well-coached team,” Gee said of Hot Springs. “You can tell they spend a lot of time outside of practice to work on their skills.”

Tohatchi opened its state tournament run with a five-set win over No. 8 seed West Las Vegas. The scores for that opening round game were 25-16, 25-27, 28-26, 22-25 and 15-13.

That exciting finish earned the Lady Cougars the right to take on top-seed St. Michael’s. The Lady Horsemen of St. Michael’s throttled the Lady Cougars with a 25-11, 25-16 and 25-19 win.

“That was an eye-opener for us,” Gee said. “We got beat pretty bad, but we were able to bounce back because we won our next two.”

In the elimination bracket, the Lady Cougars defeated Cobre (25-11, 25-16 and 25-13) and Tucumcari (25-15, 14-25, 25-16 and 25-19) to reach the last elimination game.

The Cougars are set to graduate six seniors next spring and they include Halley Becenti, Shalleyah Livingston, Shawna Manygoats, Cecil and Denetso.

“The seniors were the heart of this team,” Gee said. “They were the ones that started the summer program. They mentored a lot of the younger players, so they contributed in a big way.”

Despite losing half of his squad, Gee expects his club to make another deep playoff run next season.

“We have our setter, middle, libero and outside hitter coming back, so we have some of the pieces to work with,” the Tohatchi coach said, while adding that he would like to make the state playoffs an annual thing.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” he said. “We’re going to get a solid strength and conditioning program started in the spring and that will help us ease into the season.

“We had a good run, and now we got to focus on next year. Being at the state tournament is where we wanted to be,” said Tohatchi junior outside hitter Kayana Capitan, “and we got a feel of what it’s going to be next year, so hopefully we can do better next year.”

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