Broncos collect win in three sets against Westerners

Gabriela Langi with one of her nine kills on the night. She co-lead the team in kills, along with Vittoria Price.
Gabriela Langi with one of her nine kills on the night. She co-lead the team in kills, along with Vittoria Price.

NMMI Sports Press

The New Mexico Military Institute Bronco volleyball team defeated the Western Texas College Westerners in three sets (25-11, 25-5, 25-13) in Cahoon Armory Gym on Wednesday.

The Broncos have played each team in the conference and are 5-0 in the first run through teams in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference. They'll play each one more time before the Region V West postseason tournament.

Vittoria Price and Gabriela Langi led the Bronco offense with nine kills each.  Violeta Mendoza Quintana, Tiffany Gauspohl, and Hula Crisostomo led NMMI with eight digs. Alyssa Lukasik had six blocks to lead the Broncos in that category.

"They did a really good job tonight," said head Bronco volleyball coach Shelby Forchtner. "In the beginning we made a couple of errors and they cleaned it up throughout the set. The second set, I thought we played really smoothly and the third set we got a bunch of people in and they did exactly what the starters did. It wasn't a drastic change."

Next up for the undefeated Broncos, who move to 26-0 on the season, will be a road-trip to play in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to take on three ranked teams in the nation including No. 3 Seward CC.

"We play four really tough teams at the Reiver Festival Tournament this weekend," said coach Forchtner, who played for Seward during her junior colleges days. "We'll face the No. 3, No. 7 and No. 18 teams in the nation and another tough team in the Jayhawk Conference. It will be nice for us to go out on the floor against some really good competition."

"Seward is a little bit like Odessa," continued Forchtner about the match pitting the third and fourth-ranked teams in the nation in a possible post-season preview of nationals. "They are way more offensive than they are defensive. They are big and they can block. We are better defensively. If we come to play, I think that will be a really great match."

"Iowa Western has been playing great the last couple of weeks and they have been a top five team nationally throughout the years," said the NMMI coach with regards to the other top-ten match-up on the slate. "We are really excited to play them."

"Panola has been in and out of the rankings," said Forchtner about the 18th-ranked Fillies. "They play in one of the better conferences in the nation and constantly playing really competitive teams. They are a little bit smaller, but really athletic."

"We are going to go up there and play some really good competition from top to bottom," concluded the coach.

After Iowa, the Broncos will back at for the second go-around of WJCAC play, hosting Odessa College at 2:00 PM on Saturday, October 19th in the Cahoon Armory gymnasium.