NMMI Sports Press
The No. 12 Broncos got the sweep at home, hit well as a team and saw promising signs of development from non-starters Wednesday night at Cahoon Armory as they downed the Amarillo Badgers in the first of 14 Western Junior College Athletic Conference matchups.
But when you've been to nationals eight times like NMMI head coach Shelby Forchtner, you celebrate a well-earned win while dissecting the details.
"We started off with a nice run and then it's like we got comfortable and stopped playing our game," Forchtner said. "We're good when we control our side, focus on our and contacts, stay aggressive, and I don't feel like we did that. Amarillo was playing a little sloppy and we basically mimicked that at times."
The Broncos jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the opening set, but the Badgers clawed their way back to make it 13-10, prompting NMMI to call a timeout. After the break, sophomores Vitoria Oliveira and Leah Linares put Amarillo on their heels with a barrage of big swings and the Institute rolled to a 25-12 win.
The second set stayed close throughout, with Amarillo taking their first lead of the night at 13-12 behind good serving, aided by the opposite from the NMMI side. The Broncos had 12 service errors to just four aces on the night.
"I thought Amarillo played really scrappy defense, they served aggressively, and I think they would've hung around with us if they didn't have so many offensive errors," Forchtner explained. "They had some errors in key moments, but they made us fight for our points."
The Broncos climbed back into the lead behind kills from sophomore outside Rhiana Todd and freshman outside/opposite Sarah Schubert, while freshman defensive specialist Momoka Minamiya served up a couple aces.
The Badgers tried to shift the momentum with a timeout, but Schubert stayed hot, and Oliveira finished off the set with a win on a 50/50 ball at the net as the Institute took the stanza 25-21.
The third set began much like the second until the Broncos pulled away from a 9-9 tie with a 9-1 run as freshman middle/opposite Yuliana Favela got in on the action with a couple blocks and a big hit down the left line that spun off the defender's hand and into the bleachers.
The Badgers mounted a mini comeback to make it 22-18, but NMMI's big hitters were too much with Oliveira blasting a ball off a defender and Amarillo hitting one into the net before Linares ended the match with a laser down the right boundary that painted the line near the corner.
Linares led the Broncos in kills and hitting percentage going 15-of-26 with a single error. Oliveira had 11 kills and Favela chipped in with six.
Schubert was 8-for-18 with no hitting errors, but struggled defensively, a surprise to Forchtner who praised the young Hawaiian's all-around game.
"She's been really good defensively in practice and that's why she's out there for six rotations," said Forchtner. "We just have to get it to translate into game mode."
Freshman libero Fuka Sekita led the team with 17 digs and setters Kekililani Helekahi and Dilean Bounds had 11 and seven, respectively.
Forchtner was happy to win the conference opener but emphasized the importance of cleaning up mistakes quickly with the next two against top-5 teams and an improved conference from top to bottom.
"Everyone is better and there's just not going to be many easy nights," she said. "It's great to start it off with a win on our home floor, but we'll have to play a lot better to win against half the teams in this conference."
The Broncos (13-4, 1-0 in WJCAC) travel to Odessa for a 2 p.m. CDT matchup Saturday with the No. 4 Wranglers (16-1, 1-0) before hosting the No. 3 New Mexico Junior College T-Birds (16-1, 1-0) next Wednesday at 6 p.m. MDT.