By Connor Gray, Senior Reporter
The Lady Rangers are coming off a stretch of games where they tied four times, two of which were against the top teams in the conference.
Northwestern is sitting in fourth place in the Great American Conference standings and needs one point to clinch a playoff for the GAC tournament.
The Lady Rangers played Southwestern and Ouachita Baptist, which are the top two teams in the conference, and played on the road against Harding.
These were good games to tie, but the game against East Central was not, head coach Alex Piekarski said.
“Southwestern and Ouachita are on top of the conference,” Piekarski said. “But the East Central game, I believe we deserved to win that. It’s weird how ties bring out certain emotions. There can be good ties and bad ties.”
Northwestern has been dealing with injuries late in the season. Eight players are out with four of them being forwards, which has affected their scoring ability as a team.
Southwestern, which beat the Lady Rangers in Weatherford 2-0, had an opportunity for a season sweep, but Northwestern didn’t plan on that happening.
The Lady Rangers and Lady Bulldogs had 14 and 13 shots, respectively, with multiple shots on goal opportunities, which each goalie stopped.
Ranger Rachel Brown made multiple saves in the second half to keep the game at zero for the Lady Rangers and the final in regulation being 0-0.
The next game was a tie, as the Lady Rangers played East Central in Alva. The last time the Lady Rangers faced the Tigers, the Lady Rangers won 4-2 after being down 2-0 in Ada.
The Lady Rangers got 20 shots, but only five on goal, while East Central had 12 with eight on goal.
Neither team mustered points, with both sides playing solid defense with the game ending 0-0.
For the next two games, the Lady Rangers traveled to Arkansas to play Harding and Ouachita Baptist.
The first game of the road trip was against Harding, and both teams tied the last time they played. The Lady Rangers went down 1-0 after the half and then 2-0 at the 80:34 mark in the game. The Lady Rangers had fewer than 10 minutes to score, and then the comeback began.
They proceeded to score two goals within seven minutes right before the end of regulation. Lady Ranger Abby Nunez scored a goal at the 82:46 mark, and Lady Ranger Gisselle Holguin scored at 89:27. The final was a 2-2 tie.
Two days later, the Lady Rangers played a defensive game against Ouachita Baptist. The Tigers played aggressively but only managed three shots on goal out of 15 shots. The Lady Rangers’ offense had only eight shots, but five of those were on goal.
The Northwestern defense made sure Ouachita Baptist did not get a goal, and the game ended in a 0-0 tie.
After these games, the Lady Rangers have 14 points in the GAC standings.
Southwestern leads the GAC with 20 points, while Ouachita Baptist has 19 and Oklahoma Baptist has 18.
If the Lady Rangers win one more game, they will make the GAC tournament on Nov. 3.
The Lady Rangers’ final two games are against Oklahoma Baptist in Thursday in Alva at 6 p.m. and Southern Nazarene in Bethany at 5 p.m.