NMMI Sports Press
The Bronco women's volleyball team completed play in the 11th Annual NMMI Classic in spectacular fashion, going undefeated in four matches, all without dropping a single set.
The NMMI squad is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation according the pre-season NJCAA poll. And while some of that ranking might seem to be a residual effect of the Broncos' third place finish at last year's NJCAA D1 National Championships, 14-year head coach Shelby Forchtner and this year's players were excited to compete against some worthy opponents.
"We've been staring across the net at each other for 23 days," said coach Forchtner. "We really needed to see somebody else and see if we had a good offense or not."
"We knew defensively that we could kind of hang with anyone in the country," Forchtner continued. "We just weren't sure how alive our offensive threats were going to be, because they face such a good defense in our gym every day."
Forchtner and her Broncos opened up the tournament on Friday at noon with a three-set sweep against Garden City Community College: 25-10, 29-27, 25-13.
They then bested South Mountain Community College in Friday's nightcap, again in three straight: 25-23, 25-14, 25-15.
Saturday's beginning match was against 17th-ranked Hutchinson Community College, but again, NMMI needed just a trio of sets to down the Blue Dragons: 25-21, 25-16, 25-16.
And NMMI's final match came against fellow Region V foe North Central Texas College. Despite some drama in the final third set where the Broncos almost let slip a large and late lead due to several service errors, the Institute once more prevailed in three sets: 25-13, 25-15, 25-19.
"To be able to come out and beat every team 3-0 is definitely a super-positive, especially because we have a lot of freshmen," stated Forchtner.
One of the main reasons for NMMI success in this year's Classic, was the Broncos' prowess at the service line.
"We were able to keep every team out-of-system with our serve," explained Forchtner. "We served really, really, really well for these four games, and we're going to have to continue to do that. Our serving makes our offense better, it makes our defense better, it just makes us look better overall. It's just one simple thing, but it really controls the rhythm of the game."
Strength of serve has been one of the main focuses of the Bronco coaching staff during preseason practice sessions.
"We have a very, very good serving team, and we want to stay as aggressive as possible, and we'll take a few misses every now and then, but not 8, like we had in the last set against NCTC," said Forchtner.
But the veteran head coach with 14 Region V Tournament appearances and four trips to the NJCAA National Championship knows this is just the beginning of a grueling schedule, purposely filled with top-tier tournaments and tough opponents.
Next up the Broncos will be a road trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, to play in the SLCC Crystal INNvitational. They'll take on the host team first, Salt Lake City Community College, in a match at 12:00 PM MDT on Friday, Aug. 31, then continue competition in the two-day tournament against Central Wyoming College, College of Southern Idaho, and Western Wyoming CC.
"We're going to have some really big games next weekend and we're going to see some very good opponents: The College of Southern Idaho is ranked No. 2 in the nation," explained Forchtner. "So nothing stops – we have to prepare for those teams, and they're going to be possibly even more physical than the teams that we faced here."