NMMI Sports Press

The Bronco volleyball team had a record breaking year in 2017: they swept through the conference undefeated; won the regional tournament; topped the No. 4 and No. 5 teams in the country in the first two rounds of the NJCAA national tourney; and just missed beating the top-seeded squad in the semifinals before finishing third in the country.

Add in a pair of All-Americans and an Assistant Coach of the Year honor, and in every respect 2017 was a banner year for the Lady Broncos. But ask coach Shelby Forcthner about the accomplishments, and she says it's nothing she hasn't been wanting since she began coaching at NMMI.

"My very first year to recruit, I would tell all my kids repeatedly, 'I want to win a national championship. I want to win a national championship. I was on a team that finished fifth in the nation, and I want everybody that I coach to experience that, too. We talk a lot about that stuff with every team. This year's team put in all the hard work and did everything that we've asked them to do, and it's just cool that they went above and beyond what I did as a player. It just makes you feel good that they got to experience it all."

Maybe it wasn't a championship, but for anyone following the Broncos this season, a third-place finish at nationals probably came as a surprise. The start of the season wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The Broncos had a good effort at their home tournament, but then only managed to beat one nationally-ranked team during the various tournaments they competed in through mid October.

But that, Forchtner said, was OK.

"You want your teams to be better at the end than they are in the beginning. I see a lot of teams on our opening weekend that looked phenomenal, and then they don't come together at the end of October or beginning of November. I love that our team always gets better and better from the beginning of the season to the end. There hasn't ever been a season where we've started out amazing then gone in the tank and I really like to see that progression in our kids."

And despite the ups-and-downs at tournaments, NMMI was making it look easy in WJCAC matches, sweeping by almost every team they faced in straight sets; only West Texas (3-2) and Midland (3-1) managed to take a set from the Broncos during regular season conference play.

"It's great to experience being 10-0 and winning a conference championship outright," Forchtner said. "This group of kids worked hard and showed up for every conference match. They were ready to go beat people on Wednesdays and Saturdays – that's was a great feeling, too."

But after an off-weekend to celebrate, Forchtner told her team to forget about that perfect regular season conference mark, as the Region V West Championship Tournament was next.

"I was pretty harsh about it. I just straight up told them, 'It's over. You got to celebrate this weekend. You were 10-0. We've never been 10-0. Now you throw that all out the window because it means absolutely nothing going into the conference tournament.' And I think our kids really took hold of that. I think sometimes if you don't address that, you go in pretty cocky. 'Oh, we've beat everybody here. Who's our first opponent?' And then it's not as easy as you thought it would be, because your head is bigger than the gym you're standing in. So I really thought knocking them back down to size and telling them it doesn't matter was important. You've still got to go win all this, and they did. They really went out and played very, very well in the regional tournament as well, beating people in three again."

After getting a bye in the first round, NMMI topped both the Westerners and Chaparrals in straight sets to earn the team's fourth visit to nationals in five years.

In previous trips to the NJCAA National Championships tournament, with but one exception, the Broncos had gone two and out. This year,despite coming in as the 13 seed, Forchtner was thinking more than just positive heading into the Nov. 16 match vs. No. 4-ranked Western Nebraska Community College – she had a special feeling the moment she saw how the bracket was paired.

"I feel like God parted the Red Sea, honestly," she said. "I mean, the minute that I saw how all that stuff (the bracket) came out, and the top four teams, that's exactly what I thought.

She watched videos of the Cougars and of Hill College, a team that she expected to see in the second round. The Broncos had played poorly against the Rebels in the Tyler Tournament, losing 3-0, and the team wanted revenge.

"I knew, that if my team played like they had been playing in the month of October, that we could beat them, that we could get this win back," she said. "I was also very excited to see we had the No. 1 team in the nation on our side. Most people probably wouldn't have been very excited about that, but every game that I watched on them, I was like, 'We can do a lot of the same things this team is doing if we play at a high level.'"

So even before getting on the bus, the squad was thinking positive. And they proved that in their first two matches in Hutchinson, Kans., upsetting Western Nebraska 3-1 and sweeping by Hill 3-0.

Then came the match against No. 1 Miami-Dade, a team that was undefeated all season.

"I told my kids before we played the first match that we had to do two things extremely, extremely well, and we had to do one thing pretty good, because we already do the other things good, for the most part."

She told her squad they had to serve well, receive tough and block more than they had been.

"If we could just block more balls than we had been recently, then it would show [Miami-Dade] that we were at the same level as them," she said. "So I was actually pretty excited to play the No. 1 team. I had no jitters. I wasn't scared. In fact, I wanted to be their one loss and I knew I had the tools to do it if they played well."

And for three sets, NMMI played amazingly. The Broncos lost two sets 25-23 and won one 25-17.

"The first three sets, we just played some of the best volleyball we could have possibly ever played," Forchtner said.

And if one of those 25-23 losses had gone the other way, the match would have gone to five games with another upset possible, Forchtner said. But the Institute couldn't hold on, falling to the Sharks 25-17 in the final fourth set.

Still, Forchtner said, "I thought that was some of the best volleyball my kids have played all year in that game against them."

Even with the semifinals loss, Broncos had gone farther than any team before them - but they wanted to go out with a win. They've get that chance in the consolation championship match vs. Tyler Junior College – a battle for third place.

"Going into Tyler, we had already beat them, but I knew it was just going to be a battle," Forchtner said. "They were going to feel like we did against Hill: that they wanted to get that loss back. It felt really good to win in the first two sets, because we were really on top of everything: serving tough, receiving well, blocking shots. Everything that we had been doing the last three games we were doing really well against Tyler."

The team then hit a bit of a slump in Sets 3 and 4, but pulled out the victory with a solid Set 5.

"It was just a breath of fresh air to win that fifth set, because my kids just worked and worked and worked" the coach said.

'Fourth in the nation would have been an excellent accomplishment, but third, with a win over the team that beat us at nationals last year it is just great," said sophomore McKayla Landreth. "It was a good finish for a lot of things, and it just helped with my next chapter of volleyball after NMMI."

And the next chapter is what everyone is looking forward to. The sophomores are hoping to move on to four-year schools, and most, like Landreth, say everything the Institute did for them will help with that.

"NMMI has done a lot for me, not just in sports but in schooling and the military aspect as well," she said. "I feel like when I go to another college I'll be more responsible and know how to plan out my day and time schedule. Then with volleyball, it's made me stronger, especially with (Daniel) Ford and (Tyrell) Curtis and working out a lot. The off-season really kind of makes you tough, and whenever you're in a five-game situation, and everyone else is tired, we're still in shape and ready to go. I think that was a good experience being here at NMMI."

"The No. 1 thing I learned from going to NMMI was just having thicker skin and just being a more responsible and successful person," said sophomore Hannah David. "I feel like I wouldn't be the same person I am now if I hadn't gone to NMMI. It's taught me to be very precise, disciplined, definitely, and it just made me a more people person."

And the continuing freshmen are looking ahead to another successful season, and developing as cadet-student-athletes.

"I'd like to be more of a leader," said Karime Raygoza, a freshman from Las Vegas, N.M. "I'd like to guide us to being the best and win first place at nationals next time."

"I will continue to work hard and train to prepare myself to be a better player and I know all of this is possible by the amount of support that I have received from NMMI," echoed Paola Rivera-Herrera, the Bronco freshman who won a pair of All-American awards this year.

For the coaches, the key is replacing those powerful sophomores who will be moving on.

"We're still going to continue the recruiting process, which means going to national tournaments throughout this club season this semester. We'll be doing lots of traveling and looking around." said assistant coach Alonso Ibarra.

But with that said, there's still time to savor the excitement of the past season, and the team camaraderie that made it all possible.