The Temple College Volleyball squad experienced a couple of rough starts in their Saturday matchup against Ranger College.

The Leopards bounced back from a series of serving and receiving errors early in the match that the Rangers took advantage of, grabbed the momentum, and was able to parlay into a three-game sweep despite Temple playing better throughout the body of the contest.

Scores of the match were 25-19. 25-20, and 25-21.

The teams traded the lead back and forth several times in the first game, despite the Leopards having committed five service errors within the game's first 25 points. However, the Leopards did counter with kills by Kharma Brown, Riley Mendiola, and Lana Wright to keep the game close.

With the game tied at 17-17, Ranger finished game one with an 8-2 run.

The Leopards scratched and clawed to stay even with the Rangers. While Temple (8-19 overall, 2-12 NTJCAC) led just once in the game, 14-13, the Leopards kept up until the Rangers' 8-3 stretch late. Wright had an ace and two kills down the stretch.

Ranger (15-9 overall, 10-4 NTJCAC) was poised to run away with game three, having led 9-5, and pulled out to a 24-16 lead to force game and match point.

The Leopards broke game point four times, with Wright, Yasmine Traore, and Kenedee Pennington combining for a quartet of kill. On the fifth try, the Rangers closed out the game and the match.

Temple will host Hill College (14-7 overall, 10-4 NTJCAC) on Wednesday at 6 pm on Kirby Johnson Court.

A spoiler role and the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference playoff picture

While the Leopards will not qualify for the 2025 Region V Playoffs, the Leopards can still alter a road or two to the dance within their final four games.

Hill, Temple's Wednesday opponent, is in a second-place tie with Ranger. Weatherford, the No. 2 team in the country, has already locked up the top seed in the conference and clinch the conference with a Wednesday win, or Leopards' win over Hill and a Ranger loss. On Nov. 1, the Leopards play at Vernon College. While the Chaparrals are sitting in fourth place at 9-5, Cisco and McLennan are perched in fifth place tied at 7-7 watching Vernon's every move with four games to go. It could come down to a Temple-Vernon match to decide the conference's fourth seed on the final day of the season.