WESSON – The #20 Northwest Mississippi Community College volleyball team wrapped up five straight days on the road on Monday night with a sweep over Copiah-Lincoln Community College (7-12, 2-3), improving to 29-0 and 6-0 in MACCC play with the 25-13, 25-20, 25-19 victory over the Wolves.
The match wrapped up five days on the road for Northwest, and freshman Sofia Gonzalez said it was a team effort to win when you can't settle in at home.
"It took a lot from all of us," she said. "We were just ready to go, so that gave us more motivation to get the last game."
"I'm very proud of them," Head Coach Allison Burchyett said. "As Sofia said, it's tough to be away from home for five days and four nights, and they really stuck together, believed in each other as a team, and just found ways to be successful."
Co-lin came out strong in the opening set, playing point for point up to a 6-6 tie, but a run of four points from Northwest built some separation, and the Rangers wouldn't look back from there. Their lead would grow to 19-10 on a pair of long service runs from Ariana Woods and Dallas White, with both picking up aces.
From there, the set would be a matter of closing the door, and Northwest finished it off with a 25-13 win behind an offense that tallied 17 kills, paced by six from Gonzalez on the way to hitting an impressive .378 as a team.
"We started fast and strong, and we trust each other to have a good game and not depend on the other team's errors. That we can score on our own," Gonzalez said.
The Wolves would come out stronger in the second set, playing their way to an early 4-2 lead, but Northwest stiffened and was able to roll off a 10-3 run where the only three points for Co-Lin came from service errors by the Rangers. That gave Northwest a 12-7 advantage and was all they needed as the two sides traded points on the way to the 25-20 set win and a 2-0 lead for NWCC.
It seemed like the Rangers had wrestled complete control from the Wolves at the start of the third set, but after going up 4-1, Northwest gave up a 5-1 run to Co-Lin and they would take the lead at 6-5, staying at least even with the Rangers through to 8-8.
That was when Adalyn Callahan would take over on the serve, and the sophomore led a charge that gave Northwest seven straight points and put the match in a stranglehold. The Wolves tried to make a late run, picking up three straight points on match point, but the lead was already secure, and the Rangers finished off the 25-19 win for their 26th sweep of the season.
Gonzalez led the roster with 13 kills, passing the 300-kill mark on the year and doing it while hitting at a.307 clip. She was joined in double figures by Valerie Hurdle, who added 10. Woods finished with six, and Kylee Garcia had four kills. Nine of the 10 Rangers to play recorded a kill on the way to 42 as a team.
Chloe Rodriguez led the team in assists with 17, and White added 12 more, picking up three kills and an ace along the way. Both Gonzalez and Jania Rose had four assists as well. Rodriguez is now just 45 assists away from 1000 in her career, and White is just 13 away and is also just four aces away from 100.
Speaking of aces, the Rangers spread six aces around to five different players, with Gonzalez, Callahan, Rose, and Woods all joining White in the parade.
At the net, Northwest didn't have their typical success blocking until late in the match, but they had four blocks total, all of which were assisted by Talley Taylor. Rodriguez added a pair, and one each went to Hurdle and Garcia.
Behind them, the back line still benefited from them getting touches, and Rose picked up 16 assists while Gonzalez finished with 10 for a double-double. Callahan had nine, and seven more came from White on the way to 58 as a team.
Gonzalez said even though the numbers didn't show it, the back line definitely reaped the rewards of the work the players at the net were putting in.
"It helps the defense because we can trust that they are going to get a touch and the defense can dig the ball, and the offense can run faster and more smoothly when we are coming off of a block touch or just a regular block," she said.
The Rangers will get a day of rest before returning to the road on Wednesday evening when they will travel to Itawamba Community College (12-10, 3-2) for their second match with the Indians this year. Their first non-conference battle was a 25-15, 25-10, 25-22 sweep at home on September 2nd. With only four more conference matches to play, the Rangers are looking to finish off the job of earning the right to host the Region 23 Championship at the end of October, but Burchyett said that isn't what the focus is on.
"We have really just tried to stay focused on being where your feet are. Just taking each match one at a time and not looking past that particular moment," Burchyett said.
You can find streaming information and more on the Rangers' schedule by visiting nwccrangers.com or by following along on Northwest social media accounts.
