VOLLEYBALL: NMMI avenges loss to Lady Chaps with sweep
The No. 14-ranked New Mexico Military Institute volleyball team made sure that it wasn’t going to let a two-set lead against Midland College slip away again.
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By Oscar LeRoy MIDLAND, TEXAS - The No. 14-ranked New Mexico Military Institute volleyball team made sure that it wasn't going to let a two-set lead against Midland College slip away again. With the Broncos up 2-0 in the match against the Lady Chaparrals on Wednesday, they trailed 23-18 in the third set and NMMI head coach Shelby Forchtner reminded her team of losing a five-set to MC earlier this month in Roswell, New Mexico, after winning the first two sets. The Broncos responded by scoring the next seven unanswered points to complete the sweep of the Lady Chaps, 25-20, 25-12, 25-23, at Chaparral Center. "In that time out I asked them, 'Do you want to repeat how things went last time? Or do you want to go out there and work hard right now and defend the win?'" Forchtner said. "They all said that they wanted to go work hard, and they did it." The win was big for NMMI (22-8 overall), which broke a two-way tie for second place with MC in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference by improving to 10-3. MC fell to 15-9, 8-4, and will look to bounce back against rival Odessa College at 2 p.m. Saturday in Odessa to close out the regular season. "It's very disappointing, frustrating," MC coach Tammie Jimenez said. "It showcased how back and forth we are as a team. We come out one day and completely dominate and then the next day we've got our tails in between our legs. "I think the most frustrating part is lacking the ability to recover from errors and them compounding the errors. We struggle to get out of those holes quickly. And then you see the flip end of that where we get a nice lead and we struggle to finish." MC had an 11-5 lead in the first set, before the Broncos turned it around by scoring nine of the next 12 points. Forchtner said after a slow start, she told her team to get more aggressive with their serves and improve on their passing. The Lady Chaps never appeared to be in sync in the second set as NMMI went on to dominate to take 2-0 match lead. The Lady Chaps had been on a roll, winning their last three matches in straight sets and had played one of their most impressive matches of the season in a sweep of Frank Phillips College on Saturday. That made Wednesday's loss even more perplexing for Jimenez. "This isn't what I was expecting at all," she said. "I thought the team that showed up Saturday was going to be the team that showed up. I don't have any answers. I guess I didn't prepare my team well enough is the only answer because we didn't execute." Jimenez added that NMMI's fire was also fueled by losing that first meeting against her team. "I think our team maybe rested on the fact that we had been winning, we had been playing well, but it doesn't matter. You have to be able to execute," she said. Zoe Fernandez and Petra Fernandez led MC with 10 kills each, Miranda Acosta added 14 digs and Julia Kabala added 13 assists. Follow Oscar on Twitter: @OLeRoy_MRT
NO. 14 NEW MEXICO MILITARY INSTITUTE DEF. MIDLAND COLLEGE, 25-20, 25-12, 25-23 MC Statistics Kills – Zoe Fernandez 10, Petra Fernandez 10, Kinga Romanowicz 3, Linda Conceicao 3, Ana Zink 1, Angeli Sanchez 1, Megan Runyan 1 Digs – Miranda Acosta 14, Z. Fernandez 7, Julia Kabala 3, Mia Ornelas 2, Zink 1, Romanowicz 1, Conceicao 1, P. Fernandez 1 Assists – Kabala 13, Zink 8, Z. Fernandez 2, Ornelas 1 Blocks – Conceicao 1.5, Sanchez 1.0; Romanowicz 1.0, Z. Fernandez 1.0, Runyan 0.5 Aces – Ornelas 2, Kabala 1
2022 WJCAC Volleyball Standings Conference Overall W L W L New Mexico JC 10 2 22 6 New Mexico Military 10 3 22 8 Odessa College 9 4 23 7 Midland College 9 4 16 9 Frank Phillips 8 4 16 10 Amarillo College 2 10 15 14 Western Texas 2 10 13 14 Clarendon College 0 13 3 23
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