NMMI Sports Press
The New Mexico Military Institute Bronco volleyball team made short work of visiting conference foe Odessa College, running by the Wranglers in straight sets: 25-22, 25-11, 25-10.
Odessa College came into the match at the Cahoon Armory on the NMMI campus, as the seventh-ranked team in the nation, sporting an equally impressive 20-3 overall record.
The Broncos were right there with them, 21-4 overall and one step above in the NJCAA rankings, sitting at No. 6.
Anyone who looked at the numbers would have thought this would be a knock-down, drag-out, last-one-standing affair, with the results going down to the wire in a final fifth set.
But even the first set, which was decided by a mere three points, never seemed that close.
NMMI never trailed in the set, and managed a six-point lead midway through the match, 16-10, after a pair of aces by Bronco freshman setter Dilean Bounds.
Odessa's got within two points, 20-18, after a block. But two quick NMMI points, one off a kill by freshman outside hitter Allison Miler, made it 22-18 and forced an Odessa timeout.
After trading points, 23-21, two kills by sophomore opposite-side hitter Leah Linares finished it up.
Set two saw Odessa take their first lead of the match, 4-3, after a pair of Bronco miscues.
The Broncos rallied back, taking a 7-5 lead, then sophomore opposite Kekililani Helekahi made a huge kill from the right side. That set off a seven-point tear, giving the Institute a 14-5 lead.
Sophomore middle Vitoria Oliveira, who led the Bronco attack on the night with 12 kills, knocked down a pair of points over the middle and also served up an ace as three of the penultimate points; freshman middle Yuliana Favela closed it out with a kill on an Odessa overpass.
In set three, freshman libero Fuka Sekita had several stellar digs in the back row, including one which gave NMMI a 4-1 lead and inspired another seven-point Bronco run.
The Institute onslaught continued unabated, with attacks coming from seven different NMMI players, from all directions of the court over the final 10 points – Bounds even had a kill on dink to make it 22-7.
Oliveira hammered down match point after a quick set over the middle by Helekahi.
Favela had the highest hitting percentage on the evening at .556 with six kills, one errors and nine attacks. Helekahi and Linares each had seven kills, six for Miller, and four for freshman outside Sarah Schubert.
Defensively the Broncos were led by Sekita's 16 digs and four block assists by Favela.
With the win, NMMI moves to 22-4 overall and keeps their perfect conference record intact at 9-0.
"Tonight we played pretty well without a lot of errors. We managed to score in key moments to take and keep the momentum. I thought we passed and served well tonight. Odessa out blocked us, but our offense was better and we just defended everything," said head Bronco coach Shelby Forchtner.
NMMI has five more conference tilts left in the regular season, beginning with a road trip to take on New Mexico Junior College on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 2: 00 pm in Hobbs, NM.
"We've still have some huge games ahead of us, with several on the road, away from our home gym," continued Forchtner. "We just have to play at a high level, continue to work hard, like we did this week, on applying pressure and just being more consistent."