Peter Dindinger — NMMI Sports Press
Coming off a historic district win over Tucumcari last week, the New Mexico Military Institute Colt volleyball team hoped to carry that momentum into the second to last week of the regular season.
With the Mescalero Apache School Chiefs coming into town, the Colts exhibited lots of grit and fight in the first two sets but they dropped in three, 30-28, 25-21, 25-12, Monday night at the Godfrey Athletic Center.
After a pair of ties in the score early in the first set, Mescalero went on a 6-0 run to take an 8-2 lead.
The Colts (3-4) then fought back after a clutch kill by Olive Amechi which put NMMI on top 15-12.
NMMI increased its lead to six points.
Mescalero ended up tying the set at 23-23. The game was tied five more times during the final minutes until the Chiefs pulled away late.
Just as nail-biting as the first game, both teams had to endure 12 ties in the score during the second set.
The Chiefs (3-0) had an early 6-4 lead that was erased.
Each team went back and forth, exchanging points. Amechi and JayCee Payne had some key kills during the exchange.
NMMI led 20-19 but lost the lead as the Chiefs closed out the set on a 5-0 run.
In the final set, the Colts didn’t have enough energy left to keep the game close.
After an early 1-1 tie, Mescalero jumped out to a 10-3 lead before swelling the deficit to 10 points in the middle of the set.
The Chiefs kept up the momentum with a commanding 22-9 lead.
NMMI scored three more points late in the set but Mescalero had done its damage to come out with a 25-12 win to take the match.
The Colts resume district play traveling to Dexter at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. NMMI then plays at Tucumcari next week before closing out the season hosting Dexter on March 25.
>>JV STAYS UNBEATEN: NMMI swept Mescalero, 25-21, 25-16. The Colts are 5-0.