North Miami Middle/High School

Lady Warriors Open 2-0, Building Early Momentum Toward a Promising 2026 Season The North Miami Lady Warriors entered the 2026 season with some big shoes to fill after graduating key seniors Laney Musall and Hannah Early from a team that finished last year with its best sectional score in thirteen years. Two matches into the new season, this young group is already showing that the momentum built a year ago didn’t leave with the graduating class. North Miami has opened the season 2-0, picking up wins in back-to-back three-way matches and showing both depth and plenty of room to grow. The Warriors opened August 10 at Rozella Ford Golf Club against Triton and Whitko, posting a team score of 208 to defeat Triton’s 217 and Whitko’s 233. North Miami placed two golfers in the top three individually. Alex Blackford fired a 46 to finish second overall, while Bryanne Sturch followed with a 47 for third. Savannah Rentschler added a 56, Kinley Deardorff a 59 and Alivia Haynes a 69. Sturch provided one of the early highlights of the season when she opened her round on the second hole with a birdie. She remained just one over par through her first four holes before two difficult holes changed the direction of the round. That stretch also highlighted an area of emphasis for both Sturch and Blackford this season: learning to keep one bad hole from becoming two. Both have shown they have the golf game to compete near the top of the leaderboard, and developing the mental toughness to reset quickly after adversity could be an important next step as the season progresses. One week later, the Warriors traveled to Logansport Golf Club and proved the opening win was no fluke. North Miami improved its team score by seven strokes, shooting a 201 to defeat Lewis at 213 and Wabash at 221. Sturch led North Miami with a 47, earning third-place individual medalist honors for the second consecutive match. Blackford remained right behind her with a 48. Rentschler and Deardorff each carded 53s, while Haynes finished with a 68. One of the most encouraging stories in the early season has been the year-over-year improvement of Savannah Rentschler. Rentschler spent last season steadily developing her game, and the work she has put in is showing on the scorecard. After opening with a 56, she followed it with a 53 at Logansport and has quickly become an important part of North Miami’s scoring four. Her progress is also representative of what makes this year’s lineup exciting. With Sturch and Blackford already consistently in the 40s and Rentschler and Deardorff both sitting at 53 in the second match, the Warriors believe four players breaking 50 in the same competition is a realistic goal—not a distant one. If they get there, the ceiling for this team changes considerably. Perhaps the most encouraging part of the 201 wasn’t simply the victory—it was how the scoring came together. North Miami’s four counting scores were separated by only six strokes. That kind of depth matters, particularly as the Warriors move toward bigger invitationals, conference competition and the postseason. Last season, the Lady Warriors steadily lowered their scores as the year progressed, eventually shooting a 196 during the regular season, finishing second in the conference, placing three golfers on the All-Conference team and closing the year with a 403 at sectionals—the program’s best sectional performance in thirteen years. Graduating important pieces from that lineup naturally created questions entering 2026. Two matches in, this year’s team is beginning to provide some answers. The Warriors are 2-0, have already lowered their team score from 208 to 201, have two golfers consistently competing near the top of the individual leaderboard, and are seeing significant improvement throughout the lineup. There is still plenty of season ahead and plenty to improve upon. But if North Miami can continue developing its mental toughness while pushing all four counting scores into the 40s, last year’s success may prove to have been less of a peak and more of a starting point. The names on the scorecard may have changed, but the standard, and the momentum, have not.