SEARCY, Ark.– Northwestern Oklahoma State University Rangers volleyball dropped a heartbreaking loss to Great American Conference opponent Harding University Friday evening. The Black-and-Red were the closest they have ever been to taking down the Lady Bison. The back-and-forth play had an incredible 33 tied scores and 33 lead changes. 
 
The match was so close that it had to be decided with the tiebreaker fifth set and the Rangers battled until the very end [25-23, 14-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-13]. The loss knocked the Black-and-Red to a 15-8 record, 5-3 in the GAC, while Harding's record improved to 15-6, 6-2 in the conference.
 
Senior Jennifer Eubanks adds another amazing match to her season with a team leading .395 hit percentage and tallied the high of 18 kills. Eubanks also earned a special feat as she earned her 1,000^th career kill and with nine games left in the season is chasing Asia Pipkin's record of 1,102 career kills in Northwestern history. 
 
Kaydee Honeycutt and Kiauna Clark were not far behind as they tallied 14 and 13 kills respectively. Freshman Alexi Beach stood out tonight as she led the team with eight blocks, while Kaitlyn Robinson tallied 41 assists and three service aces. Sydnee Miller had a fantastic 38 digs throughout the match. 
 
The first set was a sneak preview at what was to come throughout the entire match with ten tied scores and ten lead changes. An early four point run from the Rangers started the first half. A late rally from Harding brought them back into the game but a timely kill from Robinson and a final slam from Honeycutt secured the first set for the Black-and-Red, 25-23.
 
Harding came back with a vengeance as the Lady Bison came out swinging. The Rangers fell behind early and just could not seem to catch up. Harding aggressively snatched the second set with a score of 14-25.
 
The Rangers return to the match with a new purpose after the second set. Tough serving and timely attacks allowed the Black-and-Red to gain a rather large 16-7 lead. Unfortunately, the Lady Bison came nipping on the heels of Northwestern in the latter half of the match. Back-to-back kills from Eubanks sealed the set three win with another score of 25-23.
 
The fourth starts a bit out of rhythm for Northwestern as Harding went on a 7-1 run to begin the game, but a rally from the Rangers sweeps the momentum back towards them to tie it at 9-9. A few ties and lead changes later and the game is tied 23-23, but a big block from the Lady Bison gives them a 23-25 win to tie the match 2-2.
 
The fifth tie-breaking match was not any less of a nail-biter than the other sets with both teams trading points. A huge block tied the set up 13-13 but some untimely errors allowed Harding to snatch the set 15-13, and therefore the match win 3-2.
 
The Rangers are scheduled to travel to Russellville, Ark. to play their second game of the weekend against Arkansas Tech. Golden Suns Saturday afternoon at 12 p.m.

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