By Connor Gray, Senior Reporter
The Lady Rangers’ soccer season is on the right track, with wins in the first two games against Oklahoma Panhandle State and Newman University.
The Lady Rangers started the year by dominating both of their opponents in their current home stretch of games.
The Lady Rangers came off an exhibition game versus Oral Roberts on Aug. 24 that did not go well for Northwestern. The Lady Rangers had to be ready for the Aggies that upcoming Friday.
“Our last exhibition didn’t end well,” head coach Alex Piekarski said. “But we continued to improve, and Friday, it really showed.”
The Lady Rangers and Aggies played a competitive first half with it being 2-1 going into the half.
The Lady Rangers got two goals from forward Abby Nunez with an assist from Tiara Campbell, and the team gave up one near the end of the half.
The game got more physical in the second half because the refs let them play it out, but eventually the Rangers got a penalty kick goal from Campbell to put them up 3-1. To put the game out of reach, Victoria Ruvalcaba scored her first goal of the season to put the Rangers up 4-1 and get the first win of the year.
Sunday was a matchup versus the Jets of Newman, and a transfer from St. Kitts was the star of the game for Northwestern.
Chrisi-Anne Mills got her first goal of the season and set up goals with an assist to Ruvalcaba to make it 2-0 going into halftime.
The Lady Rangers continued putting all kinds of pressure on the Jets and kept possession of the ball the majority of the whole game, but eventually gave up a goal with less than nine minutes to play.
A minute later, Sydne Edmiston received a red card, which immediately disqualified her and left the Lady Rangers with only 10 players on the field.
The Lady Rangers did not let that stop them from being aggressive, as they shut down Newman the rest of the game to win, 3-1.
Piekarski said he is proud of his players. He said his bench has been playing lights out, and the Lady Rangers played their best game so far Sunday.
Piekarski also mentioned the improvements of his team up to now.
“Our team’s defense has been better, despite going down a man,” he said. “We still kept playing great defense, and it give us opportunities to counter attack.”
The Lady Rangers will play again Thursday at home against Wayne State College at 6 p.m. and will then be on the road for the next five games, with three non-conference and two conference games with one of those being against Southwestern.