ALVA, Okla.– Northwestern Oklahoma State University faced their first Great American Conference opponent of the season Tuesday evening as they played East Central University. The Rangers continue to improve their record, which is now 6-4. The Black and Red fought through adversity with 33 ties and 17 lead changes.

The Rangers' aggressive serving and offense in the last three sets allowed them to take the match 3-1 [26-28, 25-15, 25-18, 25-16]. Northwestern had a total of 54 team kills, seven service aces, 13 team blocks, and a serve-receive percentage of .945 out of 69 total attempts.

Behind the continued leadership of senior Jennifer Eubanks, who had 15 kills with a hit percentage of .419 while also earning seven blocks, the Rangers snagged the last three sets in quick fashion. Senior Kiauna Clark was not far behind with 11 kills and seven blocks herself. Kaitlyn Robinson led the team with 44 assists while also leading in digs with 14. Freshman Alexi Beach tallied a nice seven blocks of her own with a hit percentage of .500.

In the first set the Rangers had a back-and-forth battle with the Tigers. There was a total of 12 ties and six led changes in the first set alone. Northwestern appeared to take an early lead, but the Tigers came roaring back to tie the score 16-16.

There were nine different tied scores from there until the end of the game. East Central took advantage of a few errors at the end of the game to take the first set 28-26.

The Rangers immediately took the momentum back from East Central behind the arms of Eubanks (4) and Kaydee Honeycutt (3). Northwestern battled to tie the game 10-10 and then took off with an 7-1 run with two kills from Clark to start the rally and take the lead 17-11. NWOSU finalized the game on an East Central error to take set two 25-15.

The next set Northwestern used their momentum from the last game to push through some battling form East Central. After a tied score of 16-16 Maggie Peterson used some aggressive serving to go on an 7-0 to take the third set with a score of 25-18.

Desiree Malicoat

Maggie Peterson (18) dives with determination to reach the ball. The Lady Rangers played against East Central Tuesday evening, coming out on top with 3-1. This game puts Northwestern at 6-4 in the season so far.

Multiple different Rangers stepped up in the fourth set with five different hitters with two or more kills. An 8-0 run to give the Black-and-Red a 13-5 lead was all it took to finish the match strong. A final slam from Sydney Carvajal secured the set win 25-16. NWOSU took the match with a final record of 3-1.

The Northwestern volleyball team is scheduled to play this weekend at 11 a.m. against Randall University and at 2 p.m. against Drury University Friday Sept. 20 at the SNU/OBU Tournament in Bethany.

(More photos of this game can be viewed at our photo gallery. Click on Photos at the top of the home page.)