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New Mexico Junior College Thunderbirds
NMJC Earns First National Ranking in Program History
September 13, 2022

NMJC Earns First National Ranking in Program History

The NMJC Thunderbird volleyball team checked in at No. 19 in the newly released NJCAA national poll. Monday, Sept. 12 is the first time in program history the Thunderbirds have been ranked in the NJCAA national volleyball poll.

The T-Birds earned their No. 19 ranking with a perfect 4-0 record this past week at the NMJC Classic. The event took place Friday and Saturday, featuring wins over Trinidad State College (25-17, 25-9, 25-16), Tyler JC (20-25, 25-14, 25-23, 25-17), Otero College (25-10, 19-25, 25-20, 25-17), and Blinn College (12-25, 25-17, 25-16, 25-22).

Head coach Holli Reyna said this moment was a long time coming for the 4-year-old program.

"This team has put in the time and effort to earn their ranking," Reyna said. "It's an amazing feeling to make history, and I think it is super meaningful to all of us because we know the amount of work that went into achieving it, and how much work it will take to keep improving. We can't get complacent, we have to stay hungry."

In individual accolade news, freshman outside hitter Iva Popovic is second in the country in kills with 244 kills over her first 16 matches. Blinn's Kierslynn Wright leads Popovic by 29 kills, however Wright has played in four more matches so far this season. Popovic's hitting percentage of .330 is No. 1 in the country for outside hitters ranked in the top 40 in kills.  

Sophomore outside hitter Maggie Machado also is at the top of the ranks for kills in the NJCAA. Machado ranks No. 11 in the country for kills with 190 on the season.

Sophomore setter Lacie Schooley is ranked No. 5 in the country in assists with 545 assists over the first 16 games.

"The thing I love about volleyball is that it runs like a well-oiled machine, it takes all the moving parts to be successful," Reyna said. "Iva and Maggie have done an outstanding job at terminating the ball, our passers and Lacie have done a tremendous job making that possible for them. I told them after we celebrated our national/individual rankings that we did this together, and we need to continue to move forward together."

NMJC will face off in their first conference matchup of the season against New Mexico Military Institute Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. MST in Roswell, NM.