Peter Dindinger — NMMI Sports Press
The ups and downs continue for the New Mexico Military Institute Colt volleyball team.
On Thursday night, the Colts headed across town for a rematch against the Gateway Christian Warriors.
Led by their dominating outside hitter MJ Stephens, the Warriors swept the Colts, 25-7, 25-13, 25-18.
The Colts were trying to defeat their crosstown counterpart for the first time since Aug. 22, 2016.
Gateway (11-1) began the opening set on an 11-0 run. Sarah Lilley highlighted the big run with back to back service aces early in the game.
A kill by Alyssa Fox and a service ace by Stephens made the score 13-1.
The Warriors’ lead grew to 15 points with a kill from Hannah Lilley.
NMMI struggled to get the Warriors out of system the entire first set. Olive Amechi tallied the final point with a kill late in the game.
Gateway got a big block by Kimber Balok and another kill by Stephens to lead 22-7. The Warriors closed out on a 5-0 run to take the game by 18.
The Colts (4-9) took a slight 1-0 lead to begin the second set before a kill by Emily Martin tied up the game.
That swung the momentum over to Gateway as it raced to a 6-2 lead after another clutch service ace by Stephens.
NMMI tried to chisel away at the deficit late in the set but the Warriors kept dominating to make the score 18-9.
Stephens came away with back to back kills to extend the lead to 10.
The Colts got a powerful kill from Amechi late in the set but it was a little too late to erase a large deficit as the Warriors came away with the 25-13 win.
After the Warriors dominated the opening sets, the final game was the most intense at the start.
NMMI took its first lead of the match on a kill by Daniela Laporte.
Gateway regained a one-point lead before the Colts tied things up with a kill by Emily Spaniel. Aided by Savannah Sandoval, Spaniel got another clutch kill to give NMMI a 4-3 lead.
The Colts had their largest lead of the match when they held a two-point lead that was later erased when Fox tied up the game at 5-5 with a kill.
After one more tie in the score, Gateway began to pull away 9-7 as NMMI tried to keep the game within reach with a kill by Alexandra Kammerer.
Gateway then got back into a rhythm to take a six-point lead.
Amelia Tenorio helped the Warriors increase the deficit to 10 points. Despite the large lead, NMMI continued to fight, getting a kill off a dig by Spaniel as well as a service ace.
At the end of the game, it was Gateway that managed to hold on by seven.
NMMI travels to Hagerman at 6 p.m. Tuesday while the Warriors play in Dora for a 6:30 p.m. match Tuesday.