Pine Hill falls short in 1A tournament

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – Playing without its leading hitter, the Pine Hill volleyball team finished the New Mexico Class 1A state tournament with a 1-2 record.

Pine Hill was missing Leilani Charley, who amassed 175 kills in 66 sets heading into the state tournament. The senior outside hitter did not play as she was saddled with an ankle injury she sustained days before the playoffs.

The Lady Warriors (19-7) earned the No. 9 seed and defeated No. 8 Grady in four sets in the opening round.

Pine Hill then lost its next two matches in the double-elimination bracket to top-seeded Logan in three and No. 10 the New Mexico School for the Deaf in five sets.

“This is not how we wanted to finish, especially with that last game going five sets,” Pine Hill coach Benelda Cohoe-Belone said. “But when I reflect back at the season, overall, we had a successful season. The girls came together, and that game against Grady was amazing.

“They played as a team; they gave full effort, and it was exciting to watch,” she added. “I was really proud of how they played that game against Grady.”

Pine Hill pounded out 35 kills against Grady, with sophomore Takoa Sarver leading the Warriors with 11 kills. Seniors Layla Johnson and Leila Todakonzie added nine and seven, respectively.

Senior setter Lovely Pino, who was recently named the District 1-1A Player of the Year, finished with 24 assists while adding three blocks.

“Lovely had an awesome game against Grady,” Cohoe-Belone said. “She is definitely one of the top-notched setters in our classification. She’s very smart; she has a high volleyball IQ. She knows her hitters very well. She knows how to adjust, and she helped lead the team in that way.”

The Pine Hill coach added that Pino kept Grady on its toe with her setting.

“She was moving their defense,” Cohoe-Belone said of her pupil. “She set that game in a strategic way, and she led our team in that sense.”

In the next round, Pine fell to Logan 25-21, 25-11, and 25-21. As one of the top four seeds, Logan was given a bye in the opening round as the Warriors played the top-seeded roughly two hours after their match with Grady.

“Logan had that bye, and they had fresh legs,” Cohoe-Belone said. “They were ready to go, and that was our second game of the day. We didn’t recover the way I had hoped, but my girls put up a good fight, considering they were the No. 1 ranked school.”

On Friday, the Cohoe-Belone coached team went the distance with NMSD, only to come up short 18-25, 28-26, 25-22, 25-21, and 15-9.

“For some reason, our serves weren’t there,” Cohoe-Belone said. “That was hard for us because we do have some awesome servers like Lovely, Takoa, Layla (Johnson), and Leila (Todakonzie).

“They’re usually consistent when they’re on, but for some reason, we really struggled with serves,” Cohoe-Belone said. “We couldn’t get it over. We hit one, and the next one would go into the net.

The seventh-year coach added they were “slacking” on defense in the back row as NMSD finished with 43 kills, with senior Angelique Quinonez spearheading the Roadrunners effort with 16 kills on 22 attempts for a .727 hitting percentage.

“They one outstanding hitter, and she knew where to place the ball,” Cohoe-Belone said of Quinonez.

“We just couldn’t get it going on our end,” the Pine Hill coach continued. “We made some little runs, but then we would hit a wall … that was definitely a challenging match. It just didn’t come together for us in the end.”

Pine Hill finished two games short of making the Final Four round, which was much better than last year’s state run when it lost its first two matches.

“We were happy to win our first game,” Cohoe-Belone said. “We put up a good fight against Grady and Logan, but for some reason, we couldn’t pull it together in our next game.”

The senior-laden Pine Hill group went 19-7 overall, which included a 6-0 mark in District 1-1A play.

“This group of girls was a special group,” Cohoe-Belone said. “A lot of them grew up playing middle school volleyball all the way up to high school. They definitely knew one another, and they knew each other’s strengths. They knew where to cover for each other, and they had a tight bond. It was really awesome to see them play when they were really on.

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