By Cade Kennedy, Sport Editor
It took 14 games for the Lady Rangers to win three games last season, but this year it only took four.
After the first tournament of the season, the Northwestern volleyball team is off to a 3-1 start, which can be credited to one point: a winning mentality.
“One of the things I told the girls was that, when we are ahead of a team, we put our foot down and we finish it out,” said head coach Jon Bingesser. “That is something that we need to get used to.”
The first opponent the Lady Rangers faced Friday was William Jewell, another team looking for a bounce-back season.
The Lady Rangers found themselves in a back-and-forth affair for three straight sets, as both teams continually snatched the lead from each other. Despite the struggle for momentum, the Lady Rangers won all three sets for a clean 3-0 sweep.
The Lady Rangers still had one more game to play that day: the host of the tournament, the Missouri Southern Lions. Missouri Southern had already won two games in the tournament, and won by outlasting their opponent.
Missouri Southern took the first set of the game, but the Lady Rangers rallied to take a 2-1 lead.
The Lions rebounded to tie the game at 2-2 and did what they had already done to two other teams. The Lions handed the Lady Rangers a 3-2 loss, their first of the season.
The next day, the Lady Rangers cruised to a victory over Truman State with a 3-0 sweep, making it the second sweep of the tournament for Northwestern.
The dominance started in the first set, when the Lady Rangers went on a 9-0 run that gave them a comfy lead. The Lady Rangers used that lead to win the first set, 25-14, and never looked back.
The final game of the tournament for the Lady Rangers involved a showdown with the Jets of Newman, who stunned Northwestern by taking the first set of the match. From the second set on, the Lady Rangers took control and beat the Jets, 3-1.