SENATOBIA – The #3 Northwest Mississippi Community College women's soccer team is taking off for the National Tournament after clinching an automatic bid in the Region 23 title game, taking home the Gulf South District Championship as well to earn the ticket to Wichita, Kansas.
"I'm super excited to get there," sophomore Emma Jensen said. "It's a national tournament and every game counts and that's what you play every game in the season for to go there and play in this tournament against the best teams in the nation."
"They've worked so hard," Head Coach James Beattie said. "The postseason for me is a reward for what you do in the season. They have worked tirelessly since August first and this is reaping the reward of everything that we've done since we started in August."
On Tuesday, the Rangers found out they will be the #2 seed in the tournament and will be the top seed in Pool B. Joining them in their pool will be the North Plains District Champion Iowa Lakes Community College Lakers, who earned the #7 seed, and the South District Champion Southern Union State Community College, who earned the #11 seed.
It will be the first time the Rangers have faced either team in competition, and Jensen said she is looking forward to the new challenge on the biggest stage.
"I don't know a lot about them, but it's nice to play new teams," Jensen said. "I don't want to drive to Wichita from Mississippi just to play a team that is from Mississippi. I want to play new teams so I'm excited for that."
Beattie echoed the same feeling, adding that he knows that both sides will present their own challenges for the Rangers to figure out.
"I'm excited to play against two teams that we haven't played yet this season. There's not going to be any bad teams at the national tournament so both games are going to be competitive and hopefully we can go up and make a good case for ourselves."
Northwest will open play at the tournament on Sunday at 12:30 pm when they face off against Southern Union State, who finished the season at 9-5-2 and defeated Cape Fear Community College in the district championship game to earn a spot in the field.
The Bison are led by Macy Chambers who scored four goals in their championship game and has been a threat all season long. There are several mutual opponents between the two including a 2-2 draw with Itawamba Community College and losses to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (3-0), Holmes Community College (1-0), and Meridian Community College (3-1).
On Tuesday, the Rangers will wrap up pool play against Iowa Lakes who finished the season ranked 15th in the nation and clinched their spot with a win over #1 Johnson County Community College on penalties in their district championship game.
The Lakers have a potent offense this year, having scored three or more goals in seven games on their way to a 12-4-2 record. The also boasted clean sheets in 11 of their 12 wins and wins and only had one loss in their last ten matches. They also challenged themselves this season, with games against eight ranked opponents and went 2-1-1 against Division I opponents on the season.
They don't have a go-to scorer on the roster and don't sport any player that has more than eight goals, led by Ana Zamorano who picked up 20 points on the season. Ines Balaghni, Mui Kamei, and Stina Mathews all have six goals each and both Chanell Makusu and Amelie Prie added five each. The team is led in assists by Emma Fournie who stacked upu 12 of the teams 61 on the year and Balaghni added 10 of her own.
In net for the Lakers, Northwest will have to get past Holly Poole who made 84 saves on the year while allowing only .77 goals per game.
"We saw Iowa Lakes when we in Indianapolis, Southern Union has played against a few teams that are in our conference but really we don't' know that much," Beattie said of what he knows of the two sides they will face. "Now it's just trying to get all of the information we can get on them and do the best we can moving forward."
The one thing the Rangers do have going for them is a crew of sophomores that have been through the rigors of the national tournament already. Jensen said that does help in the preparation for the tournament with veterans to lean on when they are playing far from home.
"I think it helps that a lot of people already have been in the tournament so they have experienced it before and know what it's like to be on the field and know that every game counts," she said.
Northwest boasts a rather impressive resume themselves, coming in as the defending national champions and had at one point won 33 straight matches dating back to last seasons undefeated run. They have wins over eight of the nine nationally ranked opponents they have played this season and five of those have been ranked in the top ten. They were also very good in neutral site games this season, going a perfect 7-0 and added on an impressive 5-1 mark in road contests.
As a team, Northwest led the nation this year in goals scored with 113 and added on 68 assists this season. They also took the second most shots of any team this year with 547 attempts on the year, with 20 percent of them going in. Only two other teams took over 500 shots on the season, with #1 Johnson County being one of them.
The Rangers are led by a pair of offensive weapons who both reached double figures in goals this season. Jensen is the reigning MACCC Player of the Year and a returning First Team All-American and only added to her resume with 27 goals already scored this season to go with eight assists from the midfield. Caroline Perkins added 15 more goals as a freshman and finished with 35 total points.
While those were the only Rangers to reach double figures, three other Rangers did finish just shy with nine goals from Mary Logan Clark, Caroline Hamm, and Molly Thompson. The team is stacked with strong passers too, led in assists this season by Kassidy McMillan's 11, followed by Jensen's eight and both Olivia Miller and Allie Sifford with seven each.
The defensive back line for Northwest has also been rock solid behind a steady starting trio of Lena Scholze, Allison Carroll and Allie Kimbrell.
Northwest is entering the tournament as the defending national champions as well, and have played in the title game the past two seasons, but Jensen made sure to note that the past isn't something they can carry with them into this year's tournament.
"Every year is different. Half of most teams are new. I feel like now that we are number two and not number one anymore it takes a little bit of pressure off of us and gives it to them but everyone wants to win against everyone," she said.
"Last year was last year, this year is this year," Beattie added. "I don't think we've got any right to go in and just think we are going to perform. We need to control what we can control and that's competing against these really good teams that are going to have some really good players on them."
If the Rangers make it out of pool play, the National semifinals are scheduled to begin on Thursday, November 20th, with the National championship scheduled for Saturday, November 22nd at 1:00 PM CST.
You can see the full schedule of matches and find more information on the NJCAA National Tournament at https://njcaachampionship.prestosports.com/sports/wsoc/index.
The full schedule of matches can be seen below:
Sunday, November 16, 2025
#1 Johnson County vs #12 UA Cassatot – 10:00 AM
#2 Northwest vs #11 Southern Union – 12:30 PM
#3 Heartland vs #10 Sussex – 3:15 PM
#4 Holmes vs #9 Rock Valley – 5:45 PM
Monday, November 17, 2025
#8 Jones College vs #12 UA Cassatot – 10:00 AM
#7 Iowa Lakes vs #11 Southern Union – 12:30 PM
#6 Pima vs #10 Sussex – 3:15 PM
#5 Mississippi Gulf Coast vs #9 Rock Valley – 5:45 PM
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
#1 Johnson County vs #8 Jones College – 10:00 AM
#2 Northwest vs #7 Iowa Lakes – 12:30 PM
#3 Heartland vs #6 Pima – 3:15 PM
#4 Holmes vs #5 Mississippi Gulf Coast – 5:45 PM
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Semifinal #1 – 10:00 AM
Semifinal #2 – 12:30 PM
Saturday, November 22, 2025
NJCAA Division II Championship Game – 1:00 PM
