NMMI Sports Press
The Bronco Volleyball team began a three-game home stand with a straight-set victory over visiting Amarillo College Saturday afternoon in Cahoon Armory. Set scores were 25-21, 25-17 and 25-17.
NMMI hit just under .300 for the game, which has been a recipe for success this season, especially with such a strong defense. Sophomore outside hitter Baby Moleni led the scoring effort with 11 kills on 22 attempts with just 3 errors for a .364 hitting percentage.
Sophomore outside and middle Barbara Guedes and freshman middle Vitoria Oliveira were efficient with Guedes scoring on 4-of-7 swings and Oliveira converting 8-of-14 with two errors. Sophomore hitter Allyah Tokelau was big at the net as well, killing 10 balls on 25 tries with four errors.
"We have a lot of offensive threats, so we want to move it around and give everyone chances to score," said NMMI head coach Shelby Forchtner. "It's hard to go win games against good teams with just one person swinging 51 balls, and at times that's what Baby has had to do. But when everyone is attacking pretty well like today, you can feed everyone, and that's tough for other teams to defend."
Freshman setter Kekililani Helekahi performed her duties up to her and her coaches' normal high standards, but also contributed two aces from a team-high 14 serves with no errors and made 10 digs including a few diving saves.
"She has really good defensive eye sequencing and she can get to a lot of balls that others can't," Forchtner said. "One of the major reasons she's on the floor is that she just makes things happen. For us, that was what we needed in the middle of the season when she took that spot. She's aggressive, communicates effectively and just makes plays."
Amarillo kept the sets tight enough to prevent NMMI from getting too comfortable, but late in the third set, Forchtner was able to give freshman outside and middle Alyssa Portee some playing time. Portee converted her only kill attempt, the penultimate point of the match.
"We really wanted to let a lot more people play in this game, but we weren't really being as aggressive as we should've been and let them hang around," Forchtner said. "Our bench is just as good as the people we have on the floor. They play hard against each other in practice and fight every day, and sometimes the bench wins. They just need more live action."
Forchtner praised her opponent, an Amarillo team in its first year of existence in a strong conference that is already playing competitive matches with some of better squads in the league.
"They are very aggressive and they have good athletes," she said. "They took a set off us last time and they are just pushing everybody. Their coach, Amanda Black, was already in the conference at Frank Phillips previously, so she knows the competition level and what she has to do to beat some of these teams. They were very effective in the middle today."
The Broncos committed 28 total errors, a statistic that Forchtner said will not cut it against the best teams in the conference or country.
"We have struggled with that from opening weekend," she said. "We kind of go into this space where it's not just one error, but five in a row. We give people hope and make them feel like they have a chance and there's no real reason for us to be doing that. We work on it all the time in practice. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."
The Broncos face Clarendon College at 6 p.m. Wednesday and Western Texas College at 2 p.m. next Saturday, the final regular-season home games of the year. The conference tourney will be played at Cahoon and beings on Nov. 4.
"We need to play well on our home floor before the conference tourney begins and this was a good start," said Forchtner. "We've lost some games here recently, which hasn't happened much in the last few years. So we want to play well here in October and make a statement so we have that confidence going into the tournament."