PORT ANGELES — When the Peninsula College women’s soccer team faces NWAACC West Division foe Olympic College at Wally Sigmar Field on Wednesday, it will be a reunion for two former Port Angeles High School teammates.
This time, Shayla Northern and Paxton Rodocker will be playing against each other.
Northern, who graduated earlier this year, is a freshman midfielder for the Rangers (4-2-2, 4-2-4), who are tied for fourth in the West Division standings.
Rodocker, a 2012 Port Angeles graduate, is a redshirt freshman at Peninsula.
This won’t be the last time this year Northern will return to Port Angeles trying to knock off the Peninsula Pirates.
She — along with a pair of other former Roughriders, Macy Walker and Mariah Frazier — also has signed to play basketball at Olympic.
As a redshirt last year, the versatile Rodocker had a front-row seat for the Pirates’ dominating run to the NWAACC women’s soccer championship last year.
This season, Rodocker has two goals and one assist for Peninsula (8-0, 9-2), which has a two-game lead atop the West Division.
The Pirates are ranked second in the NWAACC and 14th in the nation.
Northern and Rodocker were teammates on the 2011 Port Angeles girls soccer team that came within one win of its first trip to state in 25 years.
Rodocker was named the All-Peninsula co-MVP that year, sharing the honor with teammate Kathryn Moseley, while Northern was honorable mention.
In her senior season last year, Northern earned All-Peninsula honors and scored five goals and dished four assists, despite spending a lot of time playing defense due to a rash injuries that afflicted the Riders.
Earlier this season, Rodocker talked with the Peninsula Daily News about playing in front of Port Angeles fans as a college player.
“It feels awesome,” Rodocker said.
“Through high school and everything, everybody was there to support me, and so to be able to play in front of them is really awesome, because I feel like I’m giving back to them for supporting me all those years.”
The women’s match, which begins at 2 p.m., opens a doubleheader between Peninsula and Olympic.
The Peninsula (7-0, 13-0-1) and Olympic (2-3-1, 3-5-1) men face off at 4 p.m.
New national polls
Peninsula College’s men’s and women’s teams remain ranked in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s national junior college soccer polls, which were released on Tuesday.
The Peninsula men, ranked first in the NWAACC, moved up from eighth to seventh in the national poll after a big week that featured wins over West Division rival Highline and the NWAACC’s second-ranked team, Clark.
The Pirate women, meanwhile, maintained their No. 14 ranking for the second week in a row, after notching home shutouts over Highline and Clark.
See the full men’s and women’s rankings on Page B2 of Wednesday’s edition of the PDN.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
