TUSCALOOSA, AL – The Northwest Mississippi Community College women's golf team had the opportunity to do something special on Friday at the NJCAA Division II Women's Golf Championship at the Ol' Colony Golf Complex, looking for their first top ten finish in program history as well as a chance at their first All-American in program history.

By the end of the day and the 72-hole tournament, the Rangers had accomplished both feats, plus a few others, with Analeigh Little charging up the leaderboard to finish in a tie for 16^th to make it to the All-Tournament and All-American team and she was joined there by Bella McNeil, who held on to finish alone in 18^th place to pick up the final spot on both teams.

"I was just super proud of all the girls to really come together," Head Coach Adam Payne said. "We moved back up into the top ten, finishing ninth overall when last year we finished fifteenth, so that's a big improvement. To have two Third-Team All-Americans who were freshmen was huge, the first two in our program."

Little put together her best day of the tournament by far, starting on the tenth tee and beginning just one over after three holes. There was a rough patch that hit with four straight bogeys on the 13^th through the 16^th, but a par on the 17^th and an approach shot to within three feet on the 18^th would send her into the turn with some momentum.

"That definitely gave me some more confidence because I hadn't been hitting the greens with my irons recently, so that definitely gave me more confidence to start aiming at flags."

She went bogey-birdie on the first two holes of the front nine and played the final seven holes to two-over on the way to a 78 for the day, wrapping up the tournament at 43-over and in a tie for 16^th place.

"I was just trying to focus on one shot at a time," Little said. "I knew I was doing good going into the last three holes, and I was just trying to think about the shot I was trying to take rather than each hole as a whole like I usually do."

For McNeil, the day was a bit more of a struggle.

After paring the opening hole, she would see runs of bogeys on the 11^th through the 13^th and again on the 15^th through the 17^th to finish the front nine at six-over. Another run of bogeys to start the front nine would end with a double bogey on the par-three fourth.

With chances dwindling for the freshman, she would close out the final five holes at three over, picking up big pars on the fifth and the eighth to finish the day 14-over and the tournament at 44-over and in 18^th all by herself on the leaderboard.

"It's good to end on a good note," McNiel said. "It's been a rough year, but it was fun. Honestly, I hoped to do well here because I feel like I've been due all year. I didn't feel like the top 18 would be in reach, but I'm glad it was."

One of the best storylines of the day came from Zae'Ja Davis, who had been playing one of the best tournaments of her career, and the sophomore saved the best for last.

The day started out with pars on the opening 10^th and 11^th holes, but a run of bogeys and doubles would send her to the front at nine-over after her first nine holes.

That was when Davis pushed back on the pressure, rolling into three straight pars on the front nine before birdieing the par-three fourth. She would only see one blemish to the scorecard on the front nine when some trouble in the rough saw her take a double bogey, but three pars to close out the round had her bounce back for a career best 83 on her final round as a Ranger.

It was the first time in Davis' career that she had broken 90 in tournament play, not only breaking the mark but sprinting past it by shooting just a 37 on the front nine.

"I feel really accomplished because I have come a long way," Davis said. "These four rounds, I wanted to come out and shoot my personal best. I stayed calm the entire time, and I wasn't thinking too much like I did in the past three days. It's really a good opportunity to end it off like this with all of my support from my friends and family."

"Zae'Ja has been knocking on the door to having a career round to all the sudden shoot a 37 on the front nine, and posting an 83 was huge," Payne added. "She was the real reason we finished in ninth today. I just couldn't be prouder."

Madison Baker also closed out the tournament with an improvement. After the sophomore struggled to a 107 on day three, she would trim eleven strokes off of her score, rallying from a 49 on the back nine that included an eight on the par-four 10^th to shoot a 47 on the front, breaking 100 for the third time in the three days and keeping herself at 68^th in the field.

The competitors for the Rangers were closed out by Addison Forbes, who remained in the lineup for the injured Sarah Niblett. Forbes matched her score from the previous day, once again shooting a 107, but this time increasing her pars and bogeys with just a couple of holes that really got away from her.

As a team, the Rangers would finish in ninth place, picking up their best finish as a program and moving up six spots from their 15^th-place finish the year prior. Northwest jumped over Des Moines Area Community College who had leapfrogged them the day before, outscoring them by five strokes.

The finish matched the Rangers' national ranking heading into the national tournament.

That wraps up the season for Northwest, with high expectations for the upcoming season in 2026-27 with a strong signing class expected to fill some of the gaps left by the four graduating sophomores. They will also be looking to replace McNeil, who is moving on from the team to focus on studies.

Payne said this team has set the bar for teams to come, not just in the success they had, but in how they did it.

"Two of them played really well this week and were able to make All-American awards, but I would say all seven are All-Americans in terms of their character, who they are as a person, and how they represent our school. How they represent our team. It sets the bar for our recruiting and where we are going to go from here."

Keep up with the news from Northwest women's golf by visiting nwccrangers.com or by following along on Ranger social media accounts.