By KAROLINA JURESIUTE
Senior Reporter
Northwestern Lady Rangers opened their GAC conference with a sweep against the East Central Tigers Tuesday at home.
The win moves the Rangers to 4-5 on the season with a 1-0 conference record while the loss drops East Central to 5-4 with a record of 0-1 in conference.
Northwestern Lady Rangers were led by Erika Asencio Soriano in kills with 10, followed by Carmae Jones with seven and Mariela Jimenez with five. Three players finished the game with four blocks: Jones, Ece Ozdemir and Ivanny Blackwood. Hennesys Lalane finished with 21 assists.
All three sets of the game did not seem like the Lady Rangers had a lot of problems shutting the opponent down.
The Rangers started off the first set with a 3-0 lead. ECU caught up to the Lady Rangers after the next three plays, but that wasn’t enough for the Tigers to get back into the game as the Lady Rangers kept getting further away.
The Lady Rangers won the first set with a score of 25-14.
The second set of the game was a little bit closer than the first one. The Tigers scored first and at one point had a three-point lead against the Lady Rangers. The Tigers lead did not last for long, and Northwestern came back right into the game, fought until the last point and won the set 25-23.
The third and last set of the game was in the Lady Rangers favor right off the bat, starting with a 5-1 lead. The ECU Tigers tried to fight back by not letting the Lady Rangers score their set point for a straight five plays, but that wasn’t enough to earn their first win of the game. The score of the third set was 25-17.
“That was a really good win, and it was just fun to be here at home in front of everybody and take care of business like we did,” said Jon Bingesser, head coach of the women’s volleyball team.
The Northwestern Lady Rangers have not won against East Central Tigers for three straight games until Tuesday Night.
“We knew what their strong points were, and we triple blocked them every single time, which I think that threw them off guard because I know for a fact that they have not seen anybody triple block yet this year and that really helped us out a lot, right off the bat and it worked.” Bingesser said.
Brianda Diaz finished the game with eight digs and three aces.
“She did really good, and it was nice too because with our blocking, you know all she had to do was mostly worry about the tips and stuff. Her consistency tonight was very well, especially on serve and receive,” Bingesser said.
The next home game for the Northwestern Lady Rangers is this Friday against Southwestern College at 6 p.m. while Lady Rangers host the Northwestern Tournament. They will also be playing Saturday against William Jewell College at 11 a.m. and against Tabor College at 3 p.m.
Playmakers
Erika Asencio Soriano: 10 kills,
1 ace
Carmae Jones: 7 kills
Mariela Jimenez: 5 kills, 1 ace,
3 blocks
Ece Ozdemir: 4 kills, 1 ace, 4
blocks
Hennesys Lalane: 21 assists
