NMMI Sports Press
The Lady Colt volleyball team avenged a loss at home earlier this week with a convincing straight-set victory against the visiting Lady Chiefs: 25-14, 25-13, 25-8.
Set one was tied at 13 before sophomore setter Mia Martinez walked back to the service line. She served up 10 straight points – including a trio of aces – to pull away and seal the first game.
Martinez continued that service run at the start of second set, helping the Colts mount a 12-0 lead. A pair of Institute freshmen, Kaitlyn Lackey and Kira Davis, aided the run with several nice kills on outside and right-side attacks.
The third set was tied 5-5 before a pair of kills by senior Anastasia Ament fired up the home crowd. NMMI went on to score 19 straight points, 15 off of serves by Lackey, then after she was subbed out, an ace and three more points offered up by senior Alanna Pinder.
During that huge third-set rally, numerous NMMI players contributed: senior Pauline Sanchez had a pair of blocks at the net, junior Sara Pires got in on the action with a kill, and Martinez got a rare kill as a setter off of an excellent bump-pass from senior libero Ashlynn Irish.
“Tonight we were more focused,” said the Lady Colt head coach Chantale Riddle. “Our confidence was a bit shot after our last game, but in practice we worked on the things we need to work on and built that confidence back up.”
When asked about the improvements on offense, coach Riddle said simply: “We passed well. When you pass well, people can score.”
“We didn’t do that against Elida,” expanded the coach, “but today we passed, and dug, very well. We were in system allowing everyone to get the ball and our girls did a good job of transitioning, getting back, and being able to score.”
With the win, the Lady Colts evened up their record to 2-2 on the season. Next up will be Gateway Christian’s Warrior Invitational. A two-day, multiple-match tournament on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 8-9.
“I think we’re excited about the upcoming tournament,” said Riddle. “I’m going to play a lot of people and see some different rotations. I think I can be a bit more creative during the tournament – not focused just on the wins and losses – but focused on players getting on the court and learning. I think that we do have a good shot, we just have to play confident, the way we are capable of playing.”