The Georgia Northwestern Lady Bobcats have their sights set on a Sept. 28 match at Walters State (Tenn.) with an NJCAA Regional Tournament berth awaiting the winner.
photo by Georgia Northwestern
For the first time in the program’s history, the Lady Bobcats will have an opportunity to earn a spot in the National Junior College Athletic Association National Tournament. GNTC will travel to Morristown, Tenn. on Sept. 28 to face Walters State with the winner earning an automatic invite to the NJCAA Regionals.
“We actually played (Walters State) last year in a tournament,” Powell said. “They have a good program up there. It will be a challenge, but with the 12 girls I have, I feel confident that we can bring home a win and qualify for the Regionals.
We’re looking forward to it.”
The rest of the schedule will include games against the junior varsity squads from nearby Covenant and Bryan Colleges, along with teams such as Hiwassee College, Crown College, Alice Lloyd College, Welch College and Oakwood University.
“We’re looking forward to playing all of these teams,” the coach continued. “It’s nice to have Covenant and Bryan on the schedule again, along with Oakwood (Huntsville, Ala.), who might be our biggest rival. We always have close matches with them and it’s always a lot of fun.”
Although only four of the Lady Bobcats have played before on the same college team, many of the players have played together before in high school and several have gotten to know each other as club coaches.
Powell said that team chemistry would be a big factor in how far her team can go this season.
“I know chemistry isn’t everything,” she said. “Games and matches still ultimately come down to putting points on the board, but it’s still definitely important because if you don’t have chemistry, you don’t have a team. We have to have teamwork and we can’t get down on ourselves if things start to go bad. We have to stay positive.”