The Bronco volleyball team continued their winning ways on Day 1 of the 14th Annual NMMI Classic, besting yet another nationally-ranked opponent, Yavapai College, ranked No. 16 the NJCAA pre-season poll.
NMMI needed four sets to down the Roughriders, coming back from a first-set loss to sweep the next three in convincing fashion: 22-25, 25-14, 25-17, 25-21.
"They really pushed us in serve-receive, especially in the first set," explained head coach Shelby Forchtner. "I think Yavapai out-served and out-passed us. So in the second and third sets, we just challenged our kids to take over that part of the game, serving and passing, and it elevated our play. Once we had the ball in-system and had them out of system, the match momentum shifted."
Freshman outside hitter Allyah Tokelau was again a huge factor on the offensive side for the Institute, tying for the kills lead with sophomore OH Darcy Dodd – each had 13 in the match.
But perhaps the stand-out performance of the game came from Katarzyna Niderla. She had five fewer kills than either Dodd and Tokelau with nine, but a much higher-attack percentage. She also was a huge factor at the service line – with two aces – and at the net – with one solo and three block assists.
"She's just so smooth and so consistent," said Forchtner about her sophomore middle. "Even if she makes one error, she's not going to two or three. If they [our setters] keep feeding her, she's going to make positive things happen. Even if she doesn't hit the ball straight down, she still scores off of hitting hands or defenders trying to block."
In the back-court, the combo of soph Jalen Baca and frosh Mio Yamamoto was again stellar. The tandem combined for 44 of the Broncos' 66 digs in the match.
"When those two are together during a rotation, very, very little hits the ground," said Forchtner. "It's too bad we can't have two liberos and have them both back there all the time."
NMMI freshmen Megan Waghorn and Karya Suvariouglu once again split time at the setter position, Waghorn posting 21 assists while Suvariouglu posited 14.
"They are just two very different setters," began Forchtner. "Karya is so strong. That combined with her height just naturally does a great job of creating holes for our hitters. Megan has to be a bit more deceptive. But they both deliver a beautifully-tempoed ball and both came out and did a phenomenal job running our offense with very few mistakes, especially as freshman, in our first two games."
The Broncos play two more matches in Day 2 of the NMMI Classic tomorrow, taking on a very-tough Eastern Arizona College squad at 12 P.M., then yet another pre-season top-20 opponent, Navarro College at 4 P.M.
Both of those matches will be live-streamed and available for viewing later, on the NMMI Junior College page on the KSVPTV.com website: https://www.ksvptv.com/nmmi-junior-college/.