NMMI Sports Press
The No. 6 NMMI women's volleyball team led two sets to none and were rolling in the third, but couldn't finish off the T-Birds, losing the final three sets by a total of six points to end their run at the Region V Tournament in Weatherford, Texas on Saturday.
In the first year of the new postseason format in which the top four teams from the Western Junior College Athletic Conference and the top four from the North Texas conference meet in a double-elimination tournament that awards two automatic bids to nationals, the Broncos struggled against some of their most familiar foes.
After falling to the consolation bracket with a 3-1 loss to Odessa on Thursday afternoon, the top-seeded Broncos downed Western Texas College on Friday to stay alive and needed two wins Saturday to capture the second of two bids. The first auto-bid was taken by host Weatherford, the north's top seed, against Odessa Friday night.
That left the Broncos with the unenviable task of facing two top-10 squads back-to-back on Saturday, and it looked like NMMI would drop the T-Birds for the third time this season and face Odessa for a fourth, but NMJC wasn't ready to call it a season and made a huge third set comeback to snatch the momentum for good.
The Broncos killed 1-of-10 shots as a team with sophomore middle Vitoria Oliveira the only player to hit above .200. The normally efficient Oliveira went 14-of-29 with seven hitting errors.
Freshman setter Dilean Bounds was the lone errorless Bronco, with 24 set assists, 11 digs and four aces on 28 serves.
The Broncos must now wait and see if their impressive resume will net one of the four at-large bids to the NJCAA Division-I National Championships in Hutchinson, Kansas starting Nov. 16.
"We've played one of the toughest schedules in the country, we've played against and beat some of the teams that will be at nationals, and we still have a 2-1 advantage over Odessa and NMJC, two of the best teams in the country," head coach Shelby Forchtner explained. "Some things have to work out for us with other regional tournaments, but we should have a very good chance."
As of Sunday night, all but three of the automatic bids had been won. NMMI played four of those teams and defeated two, Odessa twice and Indian Hills once.
The NJCAA will announce the four at-large bid recipients and the seeding for the 16-team national tournament on Thursday at 11 a.m. MST on the NJCAA Network.
On Sunday, the WJCAC announced its regular-season awards with Forchtner winning Coach of the Year and Oliveira tabbed as conference Most Valuable Player. Freshman libero Fuka Sekita won Defensive Player of the Year honors and three players were named All-Conference selections; sophomore opposite Leah Linares, sophomore setter/outside hitter Kekililani Helekahi and freshman middle blocker/opposite Yuiiana Favela.
Oliveira, Sekita and Linares were also selected to the All-Region V Team.