Window Rock ends tourney drought, outlasts Winslow in finale

FORT DEFIANCE

The Window Rock Lady Scouts finally broke through.

For the past two seasons, the Scouts came up short in its home volleyball tournament, losing in the finals to Chinle and Winslow in back-to-back years.

On Saturday, Window Rock held off the defending champs in an entertaining two-set win at the Bee Hółdzil Fighting Schools Events Center in Fort Defiance to claim this year’s crown. The set scores were 25-22 and 25-23.

“This is awesome,” said Window Rock outside hitter Kourtney Bitselley, who played a critical role in clinching the tournament title away from Winslow.

“We lost the championship game my sophomore and junior year,” she said, “so winning it my senior year is something that I’ll cherish. It’s a memory that I’ll take with me.”

Bitselley, who finished with a team-best eight kills, capped the hour-plus match with three consecutive kills as Window Rock scored the last five points to surprise the Lady Bulldogs.

“Basically, it was all about teamwork,” Bitselley said. “I honestly didn’t know we were gonna come back like that with that big gap.”

Trailing 23-20, Window Rock got a spectacular dig from senior libero Mia Stefaniak as her save thwarted a possible ace from Winslow’s Kayla Ben. With that dig, the Scouts finished off the rally with a dink kill from senior Allyson Emerson that started a game-ending 5-0 run.

“I’m very proud of them,” Window Rock coach Ashley Mitchell said of her squad. “We tried different rotations; different roles and these girls were very versatile. They can all hit, they can all set, so we were trying different things.”

The Window Rock coach praised her team for not giving up, especially late in the game.

“These girls are actually hustlers,” Mitchell said. “That’s the one thing I emphasize, which is to keep playing until they have nothing left on the court, play until they hear that whistle.

“They did what they needed to do,” she added. “They stuck with the fundamentals, and they were reading their hitters. That was one of the things that I was proud of.”

In the opening set, the Scouts gained a 19-9 advantage after a kill by senior middle hitter Samira White.

Winslow, however, wasn’t fazed by that 10-point deficit as the Bulldogs leaned on senior outside hitter Tamia Haskie (nine kills) to get within 20-18. After both clubs traded side outs, the Bulldogs we’re looking to close out the set, but they had the wrong server at the service line as the single point they gained was nullified.

With that, Window Rock took a 22-19 lead and finished out the set with a pair of kills from Bitselley.

“We were coming back,” Winslow coach Julie Thomas said, as the service gaffe was uncovered by one of the Arizona Interscholastic Association officials.

In the second set, Thomas said Window Rock played its cards right by going to Bitselley while Winslow’s top hitter, Haskie, was out of rotation as she was subbed out for a backrow defender.

“It was intense at the end, and Window Rock pulled it out,” she said.

Despite coming up short, Thomas was pleased that they made the title game as the tournament’s top two seeds played one another in a competitive 12-team tournament. In the third-place game, Valley beat Monument Valley, Utah in two sets with the set scores being 21-13 and 25-23.

“We love coming into this tournament,” Thomas said. “We get good competition here and the girls like it. We get to see a lot of teams that we don’t see during the season.

“It was awesome for us to make this championship game,” she continued. “We wanted to bring home another banner, and we did.”

Get instant access to this story by purchasing one of our many e-edition subscriptions HERE at our Navajo Times Store.

 

---