By Connor Gray, Senior Reporter
The Lady Rangers are coming off a less-than-desirable four-game stretch where they went 1-2-1.
The Lady Rangers played against Southwestern, East Central, Ouachita Baptist and Harding, and three of the results were not what the team wanted.
On Sept. 16, the Lady Rangers went to Weatherford to play Southwestern. The last time they played was in Alva, and it ended in a tie after going into overtime.
Northwestern and Southwestern battled throughout the game with the Lady Rangers being the aggressor, outshooting the Bulldogs 8-5. Despite the advantage, the Lady Rangers did not score a goal.
Southwestern capitalized on two opportunities, getting a goal before halftime and a second goal at the end of regulation.
“It was a really competitive game against them,” head coach Alex Piekarski said. “It was a disappointing result, but I was pleased with how we played against them.”
The next game took place on Sept. 24 against East Central, and the game went smoother for the Lady Rangers.
The Lady Rangers struggled as they gave up two goals to start the game, but they recovered to tie the game before the end of the half, with goals from Jazlyn Norwood and Tiara Campbell making it 2-2.
In the second half, the game remained scoreless until the final 12 minutes, with Kailani Keoloha getting the third goal off a corner kick. With two minutes left, Aaliyah Acevedo scored the final goal of the game for the Lady Rangers to win, 4-2.
“It was a fantastic win despite going down two goals in the first half,” Piekarski said. “We scored four in a row, and our team kept believing in each other.”
Ouachita Baptist came to town Sept. 29 and got a 3-1 victory despite being out-shot by Northwestern.
The Lady Rangers were the aggressors but did not generate a goal, while the Tigers bided their time and capitalized on mistakes.
The only goal from the Lady Rangers came from Campbell late in the second half.
The last game of the stretch was against Harding on Saturday. The game was a defensive battle, with Northwestern’s Rachael Brown only having two saves.
The Lady Ranger offense did not score despite out-shooting Harding 22-7. The result was a 0-0 tie, Northwestern’s second of the year.
This last stretch of games this puts Northwestern at 4-4-2 on the season.
The Lady Rangers will play at home against Southern Nazarene on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday at noon in Shawnee. The last two games of the four-game stretch will be Southwestern on Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. and then East Central at 11 a.m. in Alva.