San Angelo, Texas- Northwestern Oklahoma State closed out their weekend at the Kathleen Brasfield ASU Invitational with two matches. The morning match was against Western Colorado, and the evening was against No.1 ranked Angelo St.
Match 1:
In the opening match of the day, the Rangers took on Western Colorado. The match started tight as the teams would trade point for point to begin as the match of set one was all locked in at four after a Honeycutt kill. Western Colorado would then knock off the following seven points to build an 11-4 lead over the Rangers before Wimmer would end their run with her first kill of the day.
The Rangers were led in kills by Addison Wimmer with 14 followed by Kaydee Honeycutt with 13. Wimmer added three aces for the Rangers as well. Carmae Jones led the team in blocks with five followed by Madison Dehlinger with three. Abby Davis led the way in assists with 24 in match one of the day followed by Abigail Burns with 14. Tarra Parks led the Rangers with 26 digs on the match with Honeycutt with 23.
The Mountaineers and Rangers would trade back and forth as the WCU would hold a six-point lead every time the Rangers would try and make a push. Western Colorado would build their largest lead at 24-14 before the Rangers score three straight points before dropping the first set 25-17.
The second, the Rangers would carry some of that late first set momentum into the second one jumping out to an early 4-1 lead in set two behind two Austyn Pine kills to begin set two. Western Colorado would take their first lead at 7-6 before the two teams would trade point for point until we saw a 17-17 tie. Rangers would get back-to-back points to open a 19-17 lead that would hold until a 21-21 tie. Wimmer would have three kills in the last four points, with the fourth one from Russell helping the Rangers close out the second set, evening the match at one.
In the third set, the Rangers started strong once against much to the likes of the second set. Northwestern opened a 12-4 lead, including six straight points to build that lead. Wimmer had multiple service aces through that run. The Mountaineers would use a couple of 3-0 runs to climb back into the set at 18-16 Rangers lead when Burns ended the opponent's run. Rangers held a 21-18 lead before Western Colorado would close the third set on a 7-1 run to win the set 25-22 overall and take a 2-1 match lead over the Rangers.
In set four, WCU started strong, opening a 7-2 lead early and closing out the match. The Red-and-Black would use a 4-0 run to make the score 9-7 on multiple attack errors by the Mountaineers. Rangers would continue to battle back to even the score at 12 on a serve from Honeycutt. The match would move to an 18-17 lead by WCU before they would close the match out on a 7-0 run to win set four 25-17 and the overall match 3-1 over the Rangers.
Match 2:
In match two of the day the Rangers were led by Wimmer with four kills followed by mutiple players with two kills each. Jones led in blocks with two followed by Austyn Pine and Wimmer with one. Burns led with six asssits followed by Kelsey Ripperger with three. Maggie Peterson led Northwestern with eight digs.
After falling in the opening match of the day, the Rangers looked to bounce back against No.1 ranked Angelo State. Northwestern and Angelo were knotted at 2-2 early on before the Rams would go on a 6-0 run to open an 8-2 lead over the Rangers before a service error would put an end to the run. Angelo State would use an 11-0 run to open a 20-8 lead over the Rangers. Northwestern would get three straight to make it a 23-11 set before the Belles closed it out with a 25-11 set one win.
Inset two, the Bells got off to a fast start on the Rangers to open an 11-1 lead which included a 5-0 run. The Rangers would take a quick 3-0 run to bring the set to 13-6 off of a few attack errors. Angelo State would go on a big run to close this set out 25-7 over the Rangers.
The Rangers looked to take set three as the team jumped out to a 4-1 lead over Angelo State, jumping out to a fast start. Northwestern and Angelo were tied at five as the third set early the teams would be trading points before the Angelo State-run. A kill by Austyn Pine pushed the game at 8-8, and the Rangers had a 9-8 lead on a service ace by Maggie Petterson before Angelo State went on a 5-0 run to open a 14-9 lead. Angelo State went on a 6-1 run for a 23-14 lead before closing out the win 25-15.
At the conclusion of the tournament the all tournament team was announced an Rangers' freshman Addison Wimmer was selcted. The full tournament team is below:
Here is the all-tournament team:
ASU- Kailyn Gilbreath, Delaney Fuller, Sophia Berg
TAMUK- Ayanna Jackson, Jackie Alanis, Nicole Murff
Anderson- Noelle Knutson, Regan Duty
Western Colorado- Jordyn Todd, Caroline Parker
East Central- Thalianette Garcia
NWOK-
Addison Wimmer
The Rangers will be back in action on September 9th as the team travels to face Friends University.
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