SUMMIT – After seeing their ranking jump up to 16th in the nation, the Northwest Mississippi Community College volleyball team kept that drive going with a 33rd win, remaining undefeated and improving to 8-0 in MACCC play with a win over Southwest Mississippi Community College (11-15, 3-7) on the road at Southwest Gymnasium.
The match started slowly, with the Rangers trailing by nine at one point in the opening set, but they would rally to win the match 28-26, 25-16, 25-13.
"It was a little slow start in a freezing cold gym, but it was a great way to battle back," Assistant Coach David Culver said. "It just showed we are very resilient, even when we were down nine points; just the way they battled back and kept believing was pretty impressive."
It was a slow start for the Rangers in the opening set with Southwest, giving up several short runs on the way to trailing 12-8 into the first timeout taken by Burchyett. The two sides traded points for the next six points out of the break, but it was Southwest that took control, using a pair of aces to go up 20-11.
"In the timeout, we were just talking about how we had the confidence to come back, and that we are a team that can get down and back up fast because we trust each other on the court," freshman defensive specialist Laney Wier said.
Ariana Woods led a service run to trim the gap to 20-17, including three aces in a row, and the rally back to finish on the next service run with Dallas White closing it to 21-20. Eventually, the Rangers would tie it up at 24 all on a kill by Valerie Hurdle and won the set on an out-of-system kill by Chloe Rodriguez to take it 28-26.
Things came easier for the Rangers in the second set, pushing ahead to a 6-1 lead in the early points, which included four kills. The Bears closed the deficit to one at 8-7, but the Rangers returned with more good pressure from the attacks to get the lead up to six at 16-10 and then increasing it to 10 at 23-13 on the serve of Reese McIntosh, eventually closing the set 25-16.
Southwest opened with the lead in a set for the first time to open the third, but the Rangers quickly pushed back, taking the lead at 2-1, and pushing it to five at 9-4 and forcing a timeout by the Bears.
The lead didn't stop there, growing to double figures nine points later at 16-6 after three straight kills from Woods forced the Bears to take another timeout. Southwest would keep it around that deficit, but couldn't close the gap, falling eventually 25-13 as the Rangers picked up a 30th sweep and their 33rd win.
Final stats were not available at the time of publication.
"It kind of had the same start, but they just handled business and played our game," Culver said. "We played with good fundamentals and executed very well. And we stayed on the gas all the way through, from the bench to the floor; it was consistent all the way through."
The Rangers have three more matches left in the regular season before the playoffs begin, and just moved up to 16th in the latest polls from the NJCAA for Division II, but for this group, it has been one match at a time all year the rest of the pieces have been falling in to place.
"This team has been seeing the big picture, and they truly are approaching it one match at a time," Culver said. "They haven't been caught up in the sets lost, the wins and losses, the streak; it's just been about the next game. When you have captains coming in and wanting to get better when you are 33-0, it shows you the mindset that they want more."
From the beginning, we all just felt comfortable with each other and trusted each other," Wier said. "There is no one on the team I wouldn't want on the court with me."
Northwest will play host to the Henderson State University and Rust College JV teams this afternoon at Howard Coliseum. They will follow up with sophomore night on Wednesday to close the year against Coahoma Community College at 6 p.m. All matches will be streamed on Ranger TV.
You can see the full schedule for Ranger volleyball by visiting nwccrangers.com or by following along on Northwest social media accounts.
