Winslow netters regain tournament title

FORT DEFIANCE – The annual Window Rock Lady Scouts Volleyball Invitational has crowned only two champions since its inception four years ago.

The Winslow Lady Bulldogs captured the first two while the Chinle Lady Wildcats walked away with last year’s championship.

On Saturday, the Bulldogs regained the tournament crown after earning a pair hard-fought victories as the third seed.

In the best-of-three matchup, Winslow came from a set down to post a 20-21, 21-16 and 11-10 win over Navajo Prep in the semifinals of the 13-team tournament.

In the finals, the Bulldogs held off Window Rock, the host team in a pair of tight sets. The set scores were 26-24 and 25-21.

“This was very exciting,” longtime Winslow coach Julie Thomas said. “Even our game before was super exciting to where it was like one, two points, so I think it gave them some confidence because we were down. That made them believe they could do this.”

In the title game, the Bulldogs put away 19 kills with six coming from junior middle hitter Tamia Haskie.

Senior outside hitter Holly Nelson added four kills while senior Lisa Tsosie and junior Keira Barton added three apiece.

“I think it’s really important that we’re able to run multiple hitters,” senior captain Amanda Childers said. “I think it gives us an advantage because if one hitter is not working that well, we are able to utilize another hitter to get that point.”

At the service line, junior Natilyn Nez served across five aces, including four in the opening set that put the Bulldogs ahead 15-8.

Window Rock, however, scratched and clawed its way out of that seven-point deficit. Junior middle hitter Kourtney Bitselley started that rally with spike that went down for a kill.

The Scouts tallied six more kills with Neveah Nelson’s winner earning Window Rock a 22-20 edge. Later in the match, Neveah Nelson put down another kill as the Scouts were on the cusp of taking set one at 24-23.

But an untimely service error by Window Rock knotted the match at 24-all and the Bulldogs close out the set with a nicely place dink from Tsosie and a big hit from Haskie.

The Bulldogs carried over that momentum in the second set as they led 15-8. And just like the opening set, Window Rock put together a huge rally as it tied the contest at 21-all. But a rash of hitting errors turned the tide as Winslow clinched the match with an ace from Nez.

“It was good to get a lead like that because in volleyball things happen to where the other team scores,” Thomas said. “We got down a little bit, but we still had the lead and we stayed on top.”

“We just kept pushing and we never gave up,” Tsosie added. “We went after every ball, and we just motivated each other and that helped us finish out the game.”

Window Rock, which earned the tournament’s top seed after pool play action, saw its championship hopes get dash with errors.

“They did not show up for the championship game,” Window Rock coach Ashley Mitchell said of her team. “We had too many errors on our part. There were some key fundamental mistakes that we made, and we should have corrected them.”

The second-year coach added the late starts did not help her team as the Scouts are trying to retool its varsity squad after being hit hard with graduation last spring.

“We’re still trying to make the adjustments,” Mitchell said. “We lost our main hitter and our main setter last year, so we’re still molding the younger players that we have. Most of them are juniors.”

Despite coming up short, Mitchell believes the loss will help them grow.

“I’m proud of them because they improved in areas that we needed them to,” Mitchell said. “I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. I have nothing but sophomores and juniors, and they’re maturing.”

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