NMMI Sports Press
The New Mexico Military Institute Lady Colt volleyball team fell to the Gateway Christian Lady Warriors in five sets at Gateway Christian High School.
The Lady Colts won the first set 25-18 led by three kills from Rilan Maloney. Maloney also had four digs and a block in the set. Kenna Roberts also had two kills during the first set.
Set two did not go to plan for NMMI as Gateway Christian won the set 25-15. Maloney also had three kills in the set.
The Colts would start on a 5-0 run lead by server Demitra Ulibarri who had two service aces in that span. NMMI was up as much as 21-6 in the set before Gateway Christian closed the gap to 25-16 in favor of NMMI to take set three.
“Demitra was aggressive with her serving tonight.” said Head Lady Colt volleyball coach Stephanie Schooley. “She played like a senior tonight.”
Gateway Christian and NMMI fought hard in the fourth set. The set went back and forth no team had more than a six point lead throughout. Long rallies made the set an endurance test for both teams. NMMI came back from a 12-6 deficit to take a 14-12 lead. Then the Colts were up 23-22 in the fourth set but the Warriors got three straight points to win the set 25-23.
Schooley thought set four was the difference tonight. Schooley said, “We had an intense practice yesterday. I was worried going into a fifth set because of the practice yesterday.”
The fifth set was all GWC as they jumped out to a 12-6 lead on an 8-3 run during that span in the best of 15 set. The Colts would drop the set 15-8 and the Warriors would win the fifth set and the match 3-2.
Rilan Maloney collected 13 kills for the Colts while having 21 digs during the match. Kenna Roberts had nine kills while digging out five balls and blocking six Warrior attacks. Demitra Ulibarri led the team with five service aces while getting 11 kills and seven digs.
Schooley was pleased by the effort of her team today.
Schooley said, “We had intensity in spurts. When we play with Intensity we do really well and we do not make many mistakes. I cannot fault my girls for their effort tonight. We just have to find a way to keep the intensity throughout the whole match instead of in spurts.
Schooley talked about communication with the team. Schooley said, “Rilan and Demitra were my top communicators today. I knew when the ball was going to them a play was going to be made.”
The Lady Colts will be playing in Mescalero on Tuesday, Sep. 25th at 5:30 PM. NMMI and Mescalero have played once already this year in Godfrey Athletic Center and Mescalero won in four sets on Sep. 11th. NMMI will have their last home match of the year on Thursday, Sep. 27th against Vaughn. NMMI’s last regular season game will be at Dexter on October 4th at 5:30 PM.