The NMMI Bronco volleyball team kept their perfect WJCAC conference record intact, downing Clarendon College at home in three straight sets: 25-14, 25-17, 25-18.
It was 'Dig For The Cure' night at the Cahoon Armory gym, and the pinked-out arena and packed house helped propel the Lady Broncos to a 20-10 overall record; 6-0 in conference.
Before the match, the Lady Broncos took time to honor local breast cancer survivors.
"For our part of Cancer Awareness Week, we wanted to take things a step further by actually reaching out to women in the Roswell community," said head coach Shelby Forchtner. "We wanted the whole night, from start to finish, to be about them, to get them back out and around people – people that were giving them hugs and writing them letters, just making them feel good. Because going through cancer treatments is extremely trying on your body and it can be easy to just isolate yourself at home."
After the introduction honors and starting line-ups were finished, it didn't take long for NMMI to jump out to a commanding lead in the first set. The Institute never trailed in any of the three sets, and wowed the crowd with huge hits all night long.
"There were lots of seams for us to hit tonight, and we're pretty good at hitting the hard cross," said Forchtner about the big swings on offense. "So when Clarendon left that open, we told our players that's going to be the shot, until they make an adjustment."
Four Broncos had five kills or more in the match, with Gali Sanchez and Hannah Davis tying for the lead with eight each.
"We were able to utilize a lot of different people," explained the coach. "Gali played well, Hannah played well, and I thought Megan Martinez played really well. We used Megan more and more as the match went on and it was good to see the setters trusting in her and getting her the ball."
Martinez finished the match with six kills and two aces.
She also praised her defense, who had some dazzling saves as well.
"I thought we did a good job on defense all the way around – there just wasn't much that we let hit the ground," said coach Forchtner. "Our block did a great job of setting the tempo. We're starting to learn that we don't have to block everything straight down. Tonight we were getting touches non-stop and then were able to score off of that."
Libero Karime Raygoza was NMMI's digs leader with eight; Kim Trauboth was close behind with seven.
Next up for NMMI is the San Jac Tri-Match, where the Lady Broncos will square off with San Jacinto, Lee and Victoria Colleges.
"San Jac and Lee are both very good teams," said Fochtner. "San Jac is always in the top 20, and Lee is one of those powerhouse Texas schools. This is our last big road trip – the rest of the way is the second half of conference play – and we're looking forward to trying to get some wins against big teams."
The next conference match for NMMI will at Frank Phillips College on Oct. 18. Their next match at home will be a Saturday match at 2 PM on Oct. 21 vs. Western Texas College.
