NMMI Sports Press

The Bronco Volleyball team won in straight sets Wednesday night at Cahoon Armory, beating Clarendon College 25-15, 25-21 and 25-9 in a match that allowed NMMI to give non-starters a lot of playing time.

"All our kids work hard every day," said Bronco head coach Shelby Forchtner. "When we have the opportunity to give them a shot, we want to. We would love to start every kid on our roster, but when they do get in and you get to see them be successful, it makes you really happy."

Sophomore hitter MaryJane Vanisi came off the bench in all three sets, converting both of her kill attempts, assisting on a block and digging one ball. Freshman middle blocker Adriana De Jesus played in the final set, assisting on two blocks and serving up an ace on her only service.

Sophomore setter Marysa Ocampo came into the game early and ended up setting the majority of NMMI's shots in the match. She assisted on 26 shots, had six digs and a block assist.

NMMI shot .338 as a team, bolstered by freshman middle Vitoria Oliveira with 9-of-12 kill attempts converted for a .750 hitting percentage and sophomore hitter Baby Moleni with 11 kills off 20 attempts with just three errors.

"We can't expect that kind of hit rate every night, but we can expect the effort," Forchtner said. "We see it in our gym all the time, so we'd love that kind of production every single game, because we have that ability. We're just a little too error prone sometimes."

The Broncos have won three in a row since losing an extremely close match at New Mexico Junior College on Oct. 8, including a four-set victory at No. 8 Odessa, NMMI's second win over the Wranglers this season. With one more home game Saturday and then two tough road matches, Forchtner hopes her team has gained the confidence needed to finish strong.

"We just want to be aggressive every game," Forchtner said. "Like tonight's game, it doesn't matter that they are the last place team in the conference, we want to set the tone with our play and not play down to anyone. That's what we need to do the rest of the way. Own our offense, own our defense and play at a high level."

Despite a winless conference record, Clarendon pushed the Broncos in the second set and hit some hard shots before NMMI rallied and ran away with the third.

"They've gone four or five sets with teams. They make you play," said Forchtner. "We just didn't block the ball well at all in the first and second sets. And then we applied more pressure serving in the third and I think that led to a lot of errors for them."

The Broncos host Western Texas College on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Cahoon Armory, the final regular-season home match and Sophomore Day.