The New Mexico Military Institute Bronco volleyball team kept their perfect conference record intact with a three-set sweep at home against Amarillo College on Friday afternoon: 25-16, 25-20, 25-15.
The win is the sixteenth straight for the Broncos, currently ranked No. 3 in the nation, with a 22-2 overall record. The Institute's last loss was on August 30th, against Northeastern Junior College, currently the NJCAA's fourth-ranked team.
NMMI's outside hitters put up impressive numbers against the Badgers, knocking down 33 kills, with sophomores Allison Miller and Sarah Schubert leading the way with 11 kills each.
On the defensive side, the backrow combo of Fuka Sekita and Momoka Minamiya provided their normal – but always stellar – play, digging out 31 Badger attacks.
"Every opposing team is going to watch our game film, everyone is going to try and pick us apart, everyone wants to try and beat No. 3, so you have to be ready to go, for every single match, no matter what," said NMMI had coach Shelby Forchtner. "And if our offense starts firing like our defense, no one will be able to touch us."
"Because of this, we just really encouraged our kids, at the start of this second round of conference, to play more aggressive offensively and for everybody to play well at the same time," continued coach Forchtner. "Almost every game in conference we've had two or three people really kind of holding us together with everyone else either hitting zero or negative. Tonight, for the most part, our offense did a pretty good job and did what we needed them to do."
Friday's win against Amarillo College starts the second go-around against conference opponents, with each team getting a home and away match. NMMI completed the first half of play in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference without a loss, going 7-0 while only dropping 3 sets – two against Odessa College and one against New Mexico Junior College.
But NMMI's road to a No. 1 seed at the Region V Championship Tournament won't get any easier, especially next week. First up will a road-trip to take on 10th-ranked Odessa College on Wednesday, Oct 16 at 6:00 pm CDT. Then on Saturday, Oct. 19, the Broncos will face 16th-ranked NMJC at home with the first serve scheduled for 2:00 pm MDT in the Cahoon Armory gym.
"Every team in the conference is better this year. You don't have a night off and you've gotta play at a high level all the time. We're in October now and the witches are out – you've got to be ready," finished Forchtner.