SENATOBIA, Miss — After being ranked No. 1 in the country all season in NJCAA Division 2 soccer, Northwest Mississippi Community College on Tuesday were selected No. 1 overall for the National Tournament.
It marks the Rangers third straight trip to the tournament but their first ever being ranked as the top seed.
"We've won conference now for the past two years and the thing we haven't done yet is win a national tournament, so the aim would be to win," head coach and Scotland native James Beattie said.
The experience of the last few years and their recent form are why Northwest think winning the Natty is well within reach. The Rangers head to the tournament with a perfect 18-0 record and have outscored their opponents 83-12 in the process.
"We have around about 12 players that have had this experience last year and can really help us move the needle at the national stage," said Beattie, who became the winningest coach in program history this season. "There won't be stage fright from them. They've been here, they've seen it, they know what the setup is."
Twenty of this year's 25 players are from Mississippi or Tennessee, which has helped the team form a bond unlike any other.
"It's actually crazy because in high school I played most of these girls, so it's like really cool you go from being enemies on the field to being teammates," said forward Caroline Hamm, who has scored 12 goals for the Rangers this season.
"Everybody just clicks with each other," goalkeeper Anna Kathryn (AK) Harrell said. "I feel like we were close last year, but it's just so much better this year."
But the team's leading goal scorer in Emma Jensen is from about as far away from Mississippi as you can get — Germany.
"I think it's pretty cool like I get to know the language better and combine both my hobby and spend a year in a different country," Jensen said.
While the German native was drawn to the team because of the familiarity of having an international coach, it's safe to say with 19 goals and 9 assists on the season, the team's first ever international player has become all too familiar with the South.
"I could feel that in the start of the season — nothing was like home, but when I got used to it I got more and more comfortable off the field and also on the field," Jensen said.
"I think preseason I'd say that's when I like really tried to make connections with her and make her feel welcome because me personally I don't know if I could do what she's doing," Hamm said.
Jensen may feel settled in the South but there's still one thing she's not okay with.
"They told me that alligators live here, and I think that's crazy because, I don't know, alligators can kill you," Jensen said.
Her fear of alligators has now turned into a goal celebration, something the team is hoping to see a lot more of in the national tournament, running from Nov. 17-23 in Huntsville, Alabama.