Peter Dindinger — NMMI Sports Press
During the final week of the Western Junior College Athletic Conference volleyball schedule, the New Mexico Military Institute Broncos were one win away from taking sole possession of the number one spot and clinching the conference title outright.
Against second-place Midland College, NMMI was able to notch a straight-set sweep, 25-14, 25-21, 25-18, Wednesday night at the Godfrey Athletic Center.
Riding a 13-game winning streak, the Broncos are now 26-4 overall and 10-1 in WJCAC play with one game remaining at 2 p.m. Saturday against Frank Phillips College in Roswell.
NMMI, the No. 7 ranked team in NJCAA Division I, is also sporting an impressive 9-0 record on its home court.
"We really want to set the tone in our gym. Even though we have to win on the road it feels so good to beat people in three on our home floor," said NMMI head coach Shelby Forchtner. "That was our goal tonight. We want to show people that in the second round of conference we're not playing. We're here and we're ready."
The Broncos started off the first set on a 3-0 run before hitting the accelerator and making the score 14-7.
Playing with tons of energy, NMMI gained a 10-point lead late in the game.
NMMI eventually took the opening set by 11.
The second set was tight at the start as there were two ties in the score before the Broncos used a 4-0 run to pull ahead to a 7-3 lead.
The Chaparrals (16-7, 8-3) fought hard and tried to creep back into the set, but NMMI stayed on track with a 14-9 lead.
Late in the game, Midland used a 3-0 run to cut the deficit to three points. The Broncos were able to prevail with the 25-21 win to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
After a close second game, NMMI went back into third gear by taking a 6-1 lead early on.
The Broncos then used a 5-0 run to extend their lead to nine.
Using another offensive spree that included a 4-0 run, NMMI extended its lead to double digits.
Midland cut the deficit down to seven but the rally came too late as the Broncos came away with the sweep.
Marian Ovalle and Katarzyna Niderla combined for 26 kills each. Ovalle and Niderla each led the offense with 13 kills.
Niderla currently ranks third in the nation with a hitting percentage of .372.
Darcy Dodd contributed with six kills while Barbara Guedes Rezende finished with four.
Megan Waghorn tallied 19 assists along with two service aces. Karya Suvariouglu chipped in with 16 assists.
The Broncos finished with eight service aces as Niderla had two.
Mio Yamamoto, the nation's best libero, who ranks first in the NJCAA with 660 digs, finished with 13 digs, three assists and a service ace.
Yamamoto averages 6.11 digs per set, which is sixth-best in the nation.
Ovalle added to the defense with eight digs and five block assists. Niderla and Dodd each finished with six digs.
At the net, Rezende had four block assists and Niderla had three.
"It seems like no matter who we put on the floor they work really well together (and) they're playing smooth," Forchtner added. "We just want to do the same thing in our final game against Frank. We've already decided that we're trying to beat everybody in three on our home floor."