Lady Ranger Celia Mbaya jumps to hit the ball on Tuesday against ECU.
By OAKLEE FIELDER
Lady Ranger volleyball won three games, including their conference opener, and lost two over the last week, giving them a 5-5 record to start 2026.
The Lady Rangers traveled to Las Vegas, New Mexico to play in the Meadow City Classic against three New Mexico teams and one team from the Great American Conference.
Eastern New Mexico University was the first opponent for Northwestern, they defeated ENMU in a five-set 3-2 win.
The first and final sets were the closest set of the match between the Greyhounds and Lady Rangers. Set one finished with a NWOSU victory 25-20. Northwestern won the second set, but dropped sets three and four. In set five, the Lady Rangers took the win by four points 15-11.
Kaylah Thomas had 15 kills and six digs. Jadyn Padilla had 11 digs and four assists. Ivanny Blackwood had eight kills and three blocks.
Game two in the desert for the Lady Rangers did not go as well. They lost to New Mexico Highlands 1-3. Although it was a loss, all the sets were closely battled, with none of them ending with more than 9 points separating the two teams.
NM Highlands won sets one and two, then dropped the game-winning set to Northwestern. The Lady Rangers won set three by five points. Highlands then took set four 25-16, giving them the win over the Lady Rangers.
Blackwood had eight kills and five blocks. Padilla had 15 digs, five assists and three aces. Thomas had eight kills, 11 digs and one ace.
The third game was against Southeastern Oklahoma State University. This game provided an early look into conference play for both teams. The Lady Rangers won the game three sets to two.
Game three went back and forth between the two teams. Set one went to Northwestern, set two went to Southeastern. They traded sets until set five, where the Lady Rangers won the game-winning set by two points.
Blackwood had the most kills with 13. Tess De Zanet had 12 kills, eight digs and five blocks. Padilla had 13 digs and three aces.
The final game in New Mexico was a quick one, with the Lady Rangers being shut out by Western New Mexico. Northwestern was unable to score more than 17 points in the three sets that were played, and WNMU took a decisive victory over the Lady Rangers.
De Zanet led NWOSU in kills with eight. She also had two blocks and five digs. Padilla had seven digs and two assists. Blackwood had seven kills and one block.
The Lady Rangers came back home on Tuesday, as they opened conference play in 2026 with a home game against East Central University.
The conference opener was a tightly contested match between the two Oklahoman teams. No set was won by more than three points. Every set had a chance to go into extra points, but the Lady Rangers took the final three sets of the four-set game.
Set one went into extra points as East Central took the set 28-26. Set two had more distance between the two teams as NWOSU won the set 25-22. The third set went into extra points and the Lady Rangers won 30-28. Set four was a close one, but Northwestern just edged out the Tigers to win the final set 25-22 and win the conference opener.
Katie Wadas had 36 assists, 12 digs and two aces. Padilla came up on the defense and had 26 digs as well as five assists. Kemelly Baez Miecznikoski had 13 kills and six blocks.
With these results, the Lady Rangers boost their record to an even 5-5. This is a great start to the year in comparison to the previous, where they started 1-9.
The Lady Rangers sit sixth in the Great American Conference standings out of 12.