SENATOBIA – The #16 Northwest Mississippi Community College volleyball team (37-0, 10-0) opened their postseason with a convincing sweep over Meridian Community College (16-17, 2-8) on Wednesday night as a part of the Region 23 Quarterfinals at Howard Coliseum, rolling along with a 25-9, 25-12, 25-17 run to eliminate the Eagles from contention.
"I thought it was a really good match to prepare us for the long run," sophomore Reese McIntosh said. "Obviously we are just taking it day by day, practice by practice, and by this point we are just playing for each other, and that's exactly what we did tonight."
The match got off to a blistering start for the Rangers behind the serve of Adalyn Callahan, who picked up four aces on the way to an 8-0 run to start the match. Things never slowed down, with Ariana Woods helping to continue the torrid pace with six kills in the set as the Rangers were up 18-1 before the Eagles had a chance at their second serve.
"What you do on the court sets the tone for the bench and the crowd, and I think with the aces and runs we had, it set the tone energy wise. Everything we did, we were having success in many aspects," McIntosh said.
The set closed with a 25-9 final with another Callahan serve being finished with a Valerie Hurdle kill.
Set two was more of a steady build for the Rangers, but that didn't mean it wasn't by chunks. It was Woods who got the ball rolling this time, going on a six-point service run to put the Rangers up 7-1. That set up the cushion, and the Northwest offense steadily stacked on to the lead on the way to a 25-12 win.
Meridian took their first lead of the match at the outset of the third, going up 2-1 after the opening point went to Northwest. It didn't last long, with McIntosh leading the big run this time, picking up a pair of aces on her way to four in the match and leading a five-point run to put the Rangers ahead at 6-3.
The lead hovered between three and four for most of the set until Sofia Gonzalez led another run of five straight points to seal the set and give the Rangers the 23-13 lead on the way to a 25-17 win.
Woods led the way in offense for the Rangers with 10 kills to go with two aces and four blocks, including a solo, that tallied to 14.5 points on the night. Hurdle finished with eight kills and no errors, with Gonzalez also putting a flawless night together with seven kills. Kylee Garcia added five more, and all but one Ranger finished with a kill.
"We have very smart hitters, and our passing is very good," McIntosh said, adding that when every part is working together, the end result is going to be good. "We only got aced once tonight, and our setters were fantastic. Credit to our hitters, but everyone else has to do their job to help them do their job."
The offense was run by the duo of Dallas White and Chloe Rodriguez, who both had well-rounded games. White finished with 15 assists along with one kill, and Rodriguez closed the match with 19 assists and two kills, adding three block assists.
Defensively, Northwest only had five total blocks as a team, with Woods picking up a part of four of them. Taylor and Garcia both added one each. The digging was paced by Callahan with nine, followed by six from Hurdle and Rose, and five from McIntosh and Gonzalez as the chemistry on the back line continues to pay dividends.
Attention now heads to the weekend when the Rangers will be hosting the Region 23 semifinals and championship on Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1. The Rangers will face Jones College (24-7, 7-3) at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the first semifinal. Pearl River Community College (25-6, 8-2) will challenge Itawamba Community College (17-11, 7-3) in the nightcap scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
Looking into that busy day, Burchyett said it will be important to keep this same style of play going into Saturday afternoon.
"Obviously, our ball control was fabulous tonight, so we need to keep up a good serve receive and our good defense. We are hard to stop when we are serving aggressively and in, being as offensive-minded as we can, we are a really good team, and we just have to take care of business, one point at a time, one game at a time, one match at a time."
The winner of each match will meet on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. for the Region 23 Championship.
Action will be streamed on RangerTV all weekend long.
Keep up with the Northwest volleyball news and updates at nwccrangers.com or by following along on Ranger social media accounts.
