VOLLEYBALL: Lady Chaps frustrated after five-set loss to No. 16 NMJC

The fifth set saw MC head coach Tammie Jimenez get ejected after being issued both a red and a yellow card for arguing a call with the officials. Because of those cards, NMJC was awarded two points for a 10-6 lead.

MC fought back to pull within 12-11 and 14-13, before Iva Popovic got a kill to win it for the Thunderbirds.

The match was big in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference standings as NMJC (19-6, 7-2) pulled even with Odessa College for first place after NMMI got a 3-1 victory at Odessa College on Wednesday. NMJC was coming off a five-set win over NMMI on Saturday.

MC fell to 13-7 overall and 6-3 to fall to one match back of the leaders.

"We finally made the adjustments we needed to make," said NMJC coach Holli Reyna, who was also a former MC assistant coach and player. "We've been struggling to make those adjustments and coming into the fifth set, we finally started doing the things we were talking about doing."

NMJC looked like it was going to take care of business earlier when it dominated the third set for a 2-1 match lead. However, the Lady Chaps showed resilience to win the fourth set.

"I try to tell these girls that every single point matters," Reyna said. "Every single thing that we do matters because Midland does a phenomenal job of adjusting faster than we do. At any given point, the momentum shifts, and so it's really hard to stay in control and stay in consistent in what we do."

MC sophomore setter Julia Kabala said her team needed to fight back sooner in the match.

"This is really frustrating," she said. "We all wanted to win, but I just feel like we started to fight too late."

This was the second time in a week that the Lady Chaps had lost a five-set thriller to a ranked team on their home floor after losing to Odessa College on Oct. 5.

MC will look to bounce back at 2 p.m. Saturday with a trip to Western Texas College, while NMJC hosts Odessa College on Saturday.