Peter Dindinger – NMMI Sports Press
It was a battle for the top spot in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference volleyball race.
After dropping the first set, the New Mexico Military Institute Broncos readjusted and showed their dominance by taking down No. 13 ranked Odessa College in four sets, 14-25, 25-9, 25-10, 25-15, Wednesday night in front of a jam-packed crowd at the Godfrey Athletic Center.
The Broncos had not defeated the Wranglers during the regular season since Sept. 25, 2019.
No. 10 NMMI is now 8-0 at home and improves to 19-4 overall and 7-1 in conference play.
"We had to play them in the spring with a really good team and turnaround and play them now," said NMMI coach Shelby Forchtner. "You see what are team can do for three sets when we focus on our side.
"Our whole goal is to defend our home floor this season. We've talked about it from day one. This was a big win for us against the second ranked team in the conference."
The opening set started off with five different lead changes before the Wranglers pulled ahead to a five-point lead.
Barbara Guedes Rezende tallied a kill to cut the deficit to four, but Odessa College went on a 4-0 run to extend the lead to eight.
The Wranglers (12-4, 5-3) then used another 4-0 run to finish off the set with a 25-14 victory.
NMMI then flipped the script in the second set.
Using a 3-0 run to pick up some early momentum, the Broncos got some solid kills from Marian Ovalle, Allyah Tokelau and Katarzyna Niderla to eventually extend their lead to six.
From that point on, NMMI began to show its dominance by taking a double-digit lead and never looking back.
The Broncos kept their foot on the accelerator to come away with the 16-point win to tie up the match.
A service ace by Jalen Baca got NMMI on the board with a one-point lead to start the third set.
The score was tied three times before the Broncos regained the lead after a kill by Dana Manu.
Tokelau stepped up for the Broncos in a big way by getting the next two kills to begin a 6-0 run that gave NMMI a six-point lead.
During the big run, Niderla and Tokelau had a massive block to spoil an Odessa attack. Karya Suvariouglu added with another block on defense to keep the rally intact.
Manu got another clutch kill while Mio Yamamoto served up an ace to make the score 13-6.
Keeping the rhythm alive, NMMI extended its lead to 10.
The Broncos took a 2-1 lead in the match by notching the 15-point victory in set three.
In the final set, Odessa held a 1-0 lead at the start, which was the only time it lead in the entire set.
A kill by Ovalle made the score 4-2 early on in favor of NMMI.
Getting another kill from Tokelau and a service ace by Megan Waghorn, the Broncos used another 4-0 run to take a five-point lead.
The Broncos went on another offensive spree by getting clutch kills from Manu, Ovalle and Niderla to put together another 4-0 run to lead by seven.
NMMI kept up the intensity and got more kills from Tokelau and Niderla down the stretch to take a 22-14 lead late in the set.
Ovalle laid down the final kill of the night to give her team the 10-point victory to take the match.
"It feels awesome. Honestly, we've been wanting to do this since last year, and to do it with this team is really cool," Baca said.
Ovalle led the way with 18 kills while Niderla chipped in with 13 kills, five block assists and two service aces.
Tokelau added with 11 kills and four digs and Manu contributed with eight kills.
Waghorn tallied 24 assists along with two service aces. Suvariouglu had 17 assists and four block assists.
Yamamoto had another busy day in the back row, tallying 17 digs. Ovalle grabbed 14 digs and had four block assists.
"Getting this win was just simply winning the serve and pass game," said Tokelau. "That's something we all practice. We've been through a lot. We all play for each other. It's nice to know we have each other's back."
The Broncos travel to Council Bluffs, Iowa, for the Dennis South Memorial tournament, where they will play four games in two days.
NMMI opens up tourney play at 12 p.m. MDT Friday against Monroe College before taking on Indian Hills Community College at 4 p.m. MDT.
WJCAC standings
1. NMMI 19-4 (7-1)
2. Midland 14-6 (6-2)
3. Odessa 12-4 (5-3)
4. (tie) New Mexico Junior College 15-10 (4-4); and Western Texas 13-16 (4-4)
6. Frank Phillips 11-11 (1-6)
7. Clarendon 5-21 (0-7)