Lady Bulldogs claim Region 23/Gulf South District championships

ELLISVILLE --- The Holmes Community College Lady Bulldogs captured the Region 23 and Gulf South District titles here Sunday night by winning on penalty kicks over the Northwest Mississippi Community College Rangers.

The Lady Bulldogs, now 16-1-2 on the season, join seven other schools as automatic qualifiers to the 2022 NJCAA Division II National Tournament at Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona on Nov. 14-19. The other qualifiers include: Southwestern Illinois, Central; CCBC Essex (MD), East; Schoolcraft (MI), Great Lakes; South Suburban (IL), Midwest; Northeast (NE), Plains; Cape Fear (NC), South Atlantic; and Phoenix (AZ), West.

Neither team was able to score in the first 45 minutes. Northwest took a 1-0 lead in the 62^nd minute. The Lady Bulldogs were able to answer the score in the 75^th minute when Callie McKinney put the ball in the back of the net on an assist from Brianna Lopez.

The rest of the regulation remained scoreless as did the two 10-minute overtime periods. The match went to penalty kicks and Holmes hit three of their PKs while Northwest hit two of theirs. Northwest was wide on one of their kicks, and freshman goalkeeper Karly Murphy saved two.

Holmes Head Coach Wesley Noble was presented the Region 23 Coach of the Year Award.

The selection show is set for tomorrow on NJCAATV and on the NJCAA social media accounts. No time has been given for this.