Holmes to play Schoolcraft at 11 a.m. CST Wednesday in NJCAA Tournament pool play

TUCSON, Ariz. --- The No. 1 seed Holmes Community College Lady Bulldogs face the No. 8 Schoolcraft Ocelots on Wednesday at 11 a.m. CST. The winner moves on to the NJCAA semifinals on Friday.

The Lady Bulldogs, 17-1-2 overall, picked up a pool play win over Cape Fear Community College, 6-1, on Monday. Schoolcraft, 14-1-4, defeated Cape Fear, 4-0, today in pool play. In the final NJCAA poll of the regular season, Holmes was ranked No. 3 while Schoolcraft out of Livonia, Mich. was ranked No. 8.

At this point, the Lady Bulldogs have 84 goals averaging four goals per contest and have 269 shots on goal and 481 shots. Brianna Lopez leads the Lady Bulldogs in goals scored with 14. Callie McKinney has 13, Jaelyn Hanson and Jaycelyn Russ each have 11, Darian Blackburn has eight goals and Tailynn Remmel has seven goals.

Lopez leads the Lady Bulldogs in assists with 15 while Remmel and Russ each have six while McKinney, Kaci Craft, Olivia Deslatte and Jaelyn Hanson each have four.

Jordan Bertschler and Karly Murphy have split time in goal for the Lady Bulldogs. Bertschler has played 835 minutes and has 37 saves while Murphy has 41 saves in 910 minutes. They each played a part in the 14 shutouts on the season. The two only gave up eight goals the entire season.

At this point, the Ocelots have 70 goals averaging over three goals per contest. Ceceilya Mernatti leads with 17 goals while Taylor Meadows has 15 and Katie Ferguson has 13 goals.

Jami Martindale and Mya Sheridan have split time in goal with Martindale playing the majority of the minutes. They have given up 13 goals on the season and have 10 shutouts.

The remaining schedule for the tournament includes: Wednesday, November 16, 10 a.m., #1 Holmes vs #8 Schoolcraft; 12:30 p.m., #2 Phoenix vs #7 Southwestern Illinois; 3 p.m., #3 Heartland vs #6 Jones; and 5:30 p.m., #4 Northwest vs #5 Pima.

Thursday will be an off day, and semifinals will be played on Friday, Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. with the national championship on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Fans can watch the matches at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/njcaa/. Cost is $10 per match, $25 for the Women's Division II Tournament or $100 for all NJCAA National Championships.