BOONEVILLE – In another display of their control, the Northwest Mississippi Community College volleyball team improved to 20-0 on the year and 3-0 in MACCC action with a sweep over Northeast Mississippi Community College (9-11, 2-1), taking down the Tigers 25-15, 25-19, 25-11, improving to 60-1 in sets played on the year.
"I think it's really just a feeling of accomplishment that all the hard work that we've put in and the team that the coaches have built is paying off," sophomore Talley Taylor said after they reached the 20-win milestone. "We are just really pushing ourselves and staying humble but also hungry, and we want to keep winning."
The Rangers rallied back early in the opening set after the Tigers pushed out to a 4-2 lead thanks to three kills and a block, but a five-point run on the serve of Ariana Woods put Northwest ahead 7-4, and the Tigers wouldn't put more than two points together for the rest of the set.
Northwest really slammed the door shut on a seven-point run from Reese McIntosh that gave them a 21-10 lead and was capped by a pair of aces from the sophomore, who finished the match with a team-high five.
After taking the opening set 25-15, Northwest had to fight off a renewed assault from the Tigers, who were able to stay close to the Rangers by trading leads on the way to a 7-7 score in set two.
"We could tell they watched film of us, and they watched that game, so they were definitely picking up on things we were working on when they played that game," Taylor said. "That's just adversity, so we have to mix up our shots and find what works and keep drilling them."
Northwest surged ahead on a four-point run from Jania Rose to take the lead for good at 11-7, holding off attempts to tie at 11-10 and 14-13 before building the lead back to 17-13 on a run led by Woods. A rash of errors from the Tigers helped extend the lead to 23-17 on the way to a 25-19 win and a 2-0 lead on the way to the third.
The third set left no doubt of who was in control of the set as the Rangers powered their way to a 14-5 lead by the midway point of the set, and extended the lead to a match-high 15 at 22-7 on another long service run from McIntosh, and closed it out with a 25-11 win for their 19th sweep of the season.
The Tigers only earned five of their points in the final set, and two of those came on the final three points.
It was another balanced attack from Northwest, who were led by Sofia Gonzalez with 13 kills, and another nine from Ariana Woods, who secured her 500th career kill along the way. Woods is now second all-time in program history, only trailing Jacia Hayes' 533, a mark set in 2023. Seven other Rangers added kills, and only Dallas White and Rose didn't record a kill.
White was joined in the passing game by Chloe Rodriguez to combine for 30 of the 32 assists, with all but two kills being assisted on in the match.
Part of the smaller kill numbers for the Rangers was due to the tough serving game by the Rangers, who finished with 13 in the match as a team, led by five from McIntosh and another three from Woods. That was compared to just a pair of aces from the Tigers.
At the net, Woods continued her dominant game with a season-high six blocks, including one solo effort. She finished the match with a team-high 15.5 points. The Rangers as a team finished with nine total blocks, with Rodriguez adding four assists, Taylor and Kylee Garcia with three, and one more from Valerie Hurdle.
"Our pins are the ones that call us in, so when we have good pin blockers, like we do, it helps the middles to close the blocks and shut down the other team's offense like we did tonight," Taylor said.
Rose led the back line with 33 digs in the match with 10 and was just ahead of Gonzalez on the way to the effort.
The win closes out the MACCC play for the Rangers this week, with a road trip to Henderson State University, where the Rangers will face off with the Reddies JV team and the Champion Christian College JV team on Friday afternoon.
Northwest will return home on Monday when they get back into MACCC play with a huge match against #21 Pearl River Community College (16-3, 3-0), with the opening serve scheduled for 5:00 pm at Howard Coliseum. That match will be streamed on Ranger TV.
The mantra going into the busy stretch is the same for the Rangers as it has been all year, taking every opponent as seriously as the next, and not overlooking anyone.
"We are just taking it one game at a time," Taylor said. "We have two games to take care of in Arkansas on Friday, so we are going to take care of that first, and then over the weekend we will focus on Pearl River."
Keep up with Northwest volleyball at nwccrangers.com or by following along on Ranger social media accounts.
