PERKINSTON – The Northwest Mississippi Community College volleyball team won their fifth straight match, improving to 25-4 on the season and moved to 9-2 in MACCC play with a four-set win over Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (12-10, 4-6), picking up their third win this season over the Bulldogs 25-15, 20-25, 25-12, 25-18.
The Rangers jumped out to a very impressive start in set one when Jania Rose led a nine-point run to get Northwest out to an 11-4 lead early. The Bulldogs recovered in the middle of the set, trading points and slowly closing the gap to 18-14 but the Rangers won seven of the next eight points, including five straight points from a Reese McIntosh serving run, closing the set on an ace to take it 25-15.
Gulf Coast responded to open the second set with some very clean execution on their side of the ball and took advantage of errors by the Rangers who had an uncharacteristic 13 errors in the set, to slowly march their way to a 16-11 lead. Northwest would rally several times for small runs, but after trimming the set to 23-20, the final two points would go to the Bulldogs as they captured their first set win over the Rangers in eight attempts this season, evening the match at 1-1.
That woke up Northwest.
The Rangers led throughout the third set, slowly building a lead to 11-7. MGCCC did cut the lead to 11-10 only to see Adalyn Callahan start a 14-1 run that was finished by Rose who again reeled off nine straight serves to completely take momentum back with a 25-12 set win to go up 2-1 on the road.
Both teams came out for the fourth set and played impeccable volleyball. The Rangers didn't see any points come from a Bulldog error until 32 points in, giving the Rangers their biggest lead of a tensely contested set at 18-14. The Bulldogs closed the gap to 19-18 to fore a Northwest timeout and out of the break, the Rangers reeled off six straight points to seal the victory, winning 25-18 to take the match 3-1.
The Rangers saw a balanced offense that witnessed four attackers reach double digit kills. Aven Mathis set a new career high of 16 kills while leading Northwest in hitting percentage at .375. Callahan had the team high in kills with 17 with Ariana Woods tallying 13 and Daylin Johnson adding 12 more.
Both Dallas White and Chloe Rodriguez finished with over 20 assists each in the match, marking the first time this season the feat was accomplished by the duo. White had 30 in the four-set win marking the second time she has eclipsed that mark and Rodriguez finished with 22, just the third time the Arkansas native has breached the 20 assist mark this season.
Northwest also picked up 14 aces in the match, led by three from Rose, McIntosh, and Saylor Bryant who came in late to act as a defensive specialist and third setting option.
In the back line, Northwest had three players pick up double digit digs, including White who's 14 digs gave her a double-double along with her assists, Rose with 12, and Hassie Clare Thurman who continued her strong stretch of defensive play over the last few matches with 11.
The win keeps the Rangers in a tie with Pearl River for second in the conference with both teams sitting at 9-2 behind Jones College who lead the way in the standings with a 10-1 record.
The Rangers will continue their season on Wednesday when they host Southwest Mississippi Community College (4-16, 2-8) at 6:00 PM at Howard Coliseum. The match will be streamed on nwccrangers.com/watch with the stream starting at 5:50 PM.
You can find more information on the Northwest volleyball schedule at nwccrangers.com or by following Rangers social media accounts.
