A season-best passing performance as a team – led by liberos Rachel Russell and McCall Sims.
Career-best showings by sophomore middle blockers Olivia Hurnes and KayleeJo Underwood.
The feats put an end to the Badgers four-game losing streak on Saturday against Midland College and garnered a critical win for AC in the most prestigious junior college volleyball conference in the country.
Amarillo College rallied from a first-set loss to defeat Midland College in four sets (22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-17) on Saturday at the FirstBank Southwest Center.
Neie tallied 19 kills – two off her single game school record – and hit over a .300 percentage (.359) for the seventh time this season. The sophomore from Bushland added four blocks to tie her highest point total (23) of the ’24 campaign.
The Badgers back row played an equally important part in the team’s success as AC’s four serve receivers accumulated a season-best 2.29 pass rating.
Freshman McCall Sims (2.67) and Rachel Russell (2.41) led AC in passing efficiency, combining for 26 successful passes and zero serve receiving errors.
Stephenville native Genesis Mendez received the most serves (26) and successfully fielded 25 of them – resulting in a 2.31 pass rating.
Underwood recorded seven kills and Hurnes had four blocks.
The win moves AC (8-10 overall) into a four-way tie for third place in the conference with a 1-1 WJCAC record.
The following is the Western Junior College Athletic Conference standings with 12 WJCAC games remaining over the next six weeks for each team.
WJCAC Standings – Sept. 23
T1. New Mexico Military Institute – 2-0
T1. New Mexico Junior College – 2-0
T3. Odessa College – 1-1
T3. Amarillo College – 1-1
T3. Midland College – 1-1
T3. Frank Phillips – 1-1
T7. Clarendon College – 0-2
T7. Western Texas College – 0-2
Last Wednesday night, the third-ranked New Mexico Military Institute Broncos (15-2) looked every bit the part as their number in the rankings to get conference play started.
Amarillo College was defeated in straights sets (25-12, 25-17, 25-14) in their WJCAC Opener against NMMI at the FirstBank Southwest Center.
AC freshman middle blocker Jaelynn Jackson hit over a .300 average for the seventh time in 2024 during the loss. The Royse City High School graduate tallied four kills on nine swings (.444 hitting percentage).
Neie led AC with nine kills and Jayli Franklin paced the Badgers in the block column with three solo stuffs.
Neie earns third conference player of the week honor
For the third time this season, sophomore Kaela Neie has been named the WJCAC of the Week, the conference announced on Wednesday.
The Bushland High School product set the Badgers’ single-season kill record last weekend with a 71-kill performance at the Amarillo College Tournament.
Neie is currently has the fifth-highest kill total and the 10th best kills per set clip (3.84) at the NJCAA D-I level. The Bushland High School product’s seven blocks last week at the AC tourney was a career-high mark over a four-game stretch.
The sophomore transfer, who attended Colorado Mesa University her freshman year, has led the Badgers in kills in all of AC’s 17 outings this season.
Neie is the first player in program history to claim three conference player of the week honors.