Tohatchi girls take full control of District 1-3A volleyball race

CROWNPOINT

The Tohatchi volleyball team is nearing the proverbial finish line in first place.

The Lady Cougars are one win away from clinching the outright District 1-3A championship as Tohatchi closes out the regular season with a pair of home games starting with Wingate tonight and Zuni on Nov. 6.

For the past two seasons, the Cougars finished as the district runner-up under third-year coach Jonath Gee.

Heading into today’s slate of games, Tohatchi (17-5 overall) leads the seven-team district with a 9-1 record while Crownpoint (14-5) comes in next at 7-2 followed by Navajo Prep (6-14, 6-4), Thoreau (8-12, 4-5), Zuni (9-11, 4-5), Newcomb (4-15, 2-7) and Wingate (1-9).

“Coming into this season I felt like this was our year,” Gee said. “These are the girls that I started with when they were freshmen, and we were hoping that this would be our year.”

Last Thursday, Tohatchi kept its aspirations alive by beating Crownpoint in straight sets. For most of the match, the Gee-coached team kept Crownpoint out of system, winning 25-21, 25-10, 25-19 at Crownpoint High School.

“We’re learning how to strategize, and we focused a lot on No. 4,” Gee said of Crownpoint middle hitter Courtney Craig. “She’s a good hitter. Our goal was to take her out of the play, so they won’t be able to run that middle.”

Craig finished with eight of Crownpoint’s 18 kills. Tohatchi, meanwhile, were relentless as the Cougars amassed 42 kills with seven players finishing with at least three kills. Seniors Keira Becenti and Bobbi Yazzie led Tohatchi’s attack with nine kills each while middle hitter Hailey Greymountain added eight.

“We just wanted to kill the ball,” Yazzie said. “That was whole goal going into this season because we’re not a tipping team, we’re hitting team.

“We’ve always been that way ever since (Gee) took over the program,” she added. “He told us that we’re going to be a hitting team; we’re going to kill the ball, and we’re going to be aggressive because that’s what we’re known for.”

Tohatchi displayed that the entire match, finishing with double digit kills in each set. The Cougars had 18 in the opening set with Becenti and Yazzie combining for half of those winners.

The Eagles put down seven total kills with Craig accounting for five of those points. The Crownpoint middle hitter had three late in the game as her fifth kill pulled the Eagles within 22-19.

The two teams traded side outs with Tohatchi winning 25-21 on a Crownpoint hitting error.

In the second set, Craig scored three straight points as her front row kill put her at the service line. She then served across back-to-back aces that tied the game at 4-all.

The complexion of the game, however, took a turn as Tohatchi dominated the rest of the set. Becenti got the Cougars rolling with a kill and then she served across six straight points for an 11-4 cushion.

After trading side outs, Greymountain and senior Destiny Jackson earned Tohatchi a 17-7 cushion with a pair of kills. Tohatchi closed out the set with six more winners, including three by Becenti in their runaway 25-10 win.

“I think there was a lot of hesitation on our part,” said Crownpoint coach Abby Bodie, who was shorthanded one player before the start of the last week’s game.

The Eagles lost the service of junior hitter Miley McMillian as she appeared to have injured her knee right before warmups.

“We work a lot of trusting each other and we had some high hopes, but due to an injury we had to play with our reserves,” the Crownpoint coach said. “I’m not sure what their mindsets were like after that, but once they know what they’re capable of doing, they’re a completely different team.”

As for hitting, the Eagles tallied eight kills in the third, which was their best outing of the match. Junior Audrey Riley had three of those kills as Crownpoint kept pace with Tohatchi.

Riley’s third kill cut Tohatchi’s lead down to 16-13. She then produced a stuff block as Crownpoint trialed 17-16. After an ace by Layla Pablo-Yazzie and a hitting error by Tohatchi, Crownpoint took an 18-17 advantage.

That rally was short-lived as Tohatchi finished off the Eagles with an 8-2 run to complete the sweep.

“After we won the second set, the pressure was kind of off,” Gee said. “The girls wanted to win, and this is the first time that I’ve seen them be this aggressive. They were hitting the floor for digs, and they were hitting the ball. Really, our defense made a huge difference.

“That’s what we really worked on most of the time,” he added. “We knew what this game meant, so we went over the statistics, and we came in mentally prepared. We just stayed aggressive on the net where we had hit after hit.”

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