Broncos sweep T-Birds, earn bid to nationals

The Broncos punched their ticket to the NJCAA Division I National Volleyball Championship tournament with wins over Odessa and New Mexico Junior College at Cahoon Armory on Saturday.

NMMI was hosting the Region 5 West Tournament due to their finish atop the conference standings last season, but this year it was New Mexico Junior College that swept the Broncos during the regular-season and captured the No. 1 seed.

Both the Broncos and Thunderbirds needed five sets to dispatch their semifinal opponents. The Broncos had defeated the Wranglers twice during the regular season; 3-0 in Roswell and 3-1 at Odessa. During the first two sets, it looked like NMMI was poised to sweep the Wranglers once again, but the momentum shifted and Odessa took the third and fourth sets.

"We had a totally different game plan against Odessa, and for two sets we executed so smoothly," said Bronco head coach Shelby Forchtner. "Then it kind of fell apart. Odessa started serving better than us, and that led to them passing better. We eased up."

In the fifth set, the Broncos jumped out to five-point lead with some big blocks and sharp serves from sophomore setter Marysa Ocampo. After a timeout, Odessa grabbed a couple points off NMMI errors, but the Broncos righted the ship quickly and stretched the lead to 10-4 off the hard kills from sophomore hitter Allyah Tokelau and freshman middle Vitoria Oliveira. The Wranglers called another timeout to stop the bleeding, but the Broncos kept the pressure on and made it to 15 first.

"We've been playing really good the past three weeks and the latter part of the game with Odessa was not us," Forchtner said. "So it was nice to see those kids come back out for the fifth set and do what we do. And that's what we'll have to do at nationals; stay aggressive every match, every set. It's hard to beat a good team three times and Odessa is a good team. Our conference is full of good teams."

With just an hour between matches, the Broncos hydrated and immediately began warming up for the title match. The quick turnaround was even more bothersome for sophomore libero Mio Yamamoto, who rolled her ankle during practice a day earlier. The All-American didn't show any signs of distress.

"You wouldn't know she was hurt because she's a savage. She is just a legit savage," said Forchtner. "The minute she hurt it and it blew up like a balloon, she turned to us and said, 'I still play tomorrow.' And we were all just hoping and praying that she could even step on it."

Forchtner praised the NMMI athletic training staff for getting Mio ready to play and keeping her ready between games.

NMJC was the only school in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference that beat NMMI twice this season, but they were very different games. Back in September, the T-Birds came to Cahoon and swept the Broncos. On Oct. 8 in Hobbs, NMMI went five sets with NMJC, losing 16-14 in the final set.

As Forchtner put it, things came full circle Saturday as the Broncos swept NMJC 25-19, 25-15 and 25-21.

"Honestly, we've known the entire season that we could get it done, we just didn't execute," she said. "Today we did. I told them from the beginning; we have to out serve them, out block them and out defend them. Our offenses were going to match up, but if we take care of those three things, it's game over."

"They still had some really good kills, just like we did. Their opposite and outside were still really hard to slow down. They stepped up and took big swings all day. But we just blocked them, finally. We statistically shut down their blocking. That was the key."

Sophomore hitters Allyah Tokelau and Baby Moleni led the offensive charge with 15 and 13 kills, respectively and just six errors between them. Oliveira killed six of her 14 attempts with a single error. Having three or even four stout offensive threats in every game has become the norm for the Broncos lately.

"We've seen such good growth from everyone," Forchtner said. "Some of our sophomores were questioning things early on and they finally found the confidence we've been trying to instill in them for a year and a half. Kids like Marysa and Laila (Bernardino) that we've convinced that they can play with the bigs because they are smart, athletic grinders."

"Baby came into our system as a transfer and our team accepted her with open arms. She struggled at her last school with confidence and leadership and we've just pushed her since the moment she committed to us. And now you see it. She's been a workhorse all season."

The 16-team national tournament begins Thursday, Nov. 17 in West Plains, Missouri. This will be the Broncos' eighth trip to nationals since 2013.