By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Sophomore leadership, some key transfers and a talented incoming crop of freshman should put the Peninsula College women’s soccer team in striking distance of a potential Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) championship repeat.
“Our sophomore class has a lot of blue-collar kids who feel zero entitlement and want to work hard and are really talented, too,” Pirates head coach Kanyon Anderson said.
“We have all the pieces to be quite good. The talent is here. The question is if we will be tough enough, will we be cohesive enough?”
Anderson, the only head coach since the program’s inception in 2010, has won three NWAC titles and racked up a staggeringly successful record of 123-18-13 entering the 2017 season.
He knows what’s required of title-winning teams and that understanding expectation filters down throughout the program.
“The sophomore class last season, they wanted [to win a championship] so bad, we were like, ‘We have to want it that bad, too,” sophomore defender Malia Brudvik said.
“There’s a lot of pressure for us as defending champs, but we are taking that to help light our fire for this season.”
Brudvik and Samantha (Sam) Guzman, a defender who redshirted in 2016 and should start this season, are in agreement about the strength of this year’s Pirate squad.
“The back line, we have a really strong back line,” Guzman said.
“We have this freshman, Halle [Watson], she’s tall, she’s good in the air and really strong.
Watson showed off ample athleticism in a recent close-quarters practice, fighting for headers and showing off a strong leg on a high strike past backup goalkeeper Kassidy Zinda.
“And then we have literally, the smallest girl on the team, Cindy [Vasquez] who is five feet tall and is not afraid of going into a tackle with an athlete like Halle,” Guzman said.
“Her feet are so fast you’ll think she’s lost the ball and she’s gone completely around you.”
Peninsula returns talent up top at the forward positions.
Sydney Warren, who scored 12 goals last season, already has five in three games in 2017. She sits fifth all-time in Peninsula women’s history.
Sophomore forward Maddy Parton found the net six times and set up another nine scores in 2016.
Washington State transfer Jordyn DiCintio already has proven her value in 2017 with four assists in three games, including three in a 9-0 drubbing of Tacoma.
DiCintio appeared in 13 games as a freshman, starting two, for the Cougars last season.
Peninsula also has plenty of depth in the midfield.
“We have six really talented, creative, mobile, skillful midfielders, so it will be about finding the right style,” Anderson said.
He described sophomore Sarah Reiber, who plays a more defensive style of soccer as a holding midfielder, as “tough.”
“Kelly Kevershan played out wide last year, but we’ve moved her into the middle,” Anderson said. “She was a point guard in basketball and really sees the field well.
“Jayna Morikawa is one of our most technically gifted players and very calm. Jayna and Kelly both have really high soccer IQs.
And we have a new player, Bri Durand, who I think is going to be really good. She’s got a lot of energy.”
Anderson also said Janis Martinez-Ortiz, a transfer from NCAA Division II Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, “looks like she can be really dangerous off the dribble and creative.”
Tatiana Hagan, who Anderson said “was a really good player for us last season,” is dealing with quadriceps injury, but should return and contribute.
Dialing in the right lineups and finding cohesion is the first order of business. And Anderson is enjoying envisioning the players he can put on the field.
“Halle Watson, a strong presence in the back and a very good player. If we were to run her next to Sam Guzman that would be a really big centerback back line,” he said.
“And then you get some athleticism on the wing, too. Throw those three athletes up top. We can go to Jordyn [DiCintio], who’s a division one athlete, Sydney who’s a division one athlete, Maddy who’s a division one athlete, then in the back we can also go with Emelie who’s another division one athlete.”
And Anderson is looking forward to seeing his team grow.
“We are always so much better in October than we are now [early in the season] because players are getting to know each other, learning the system,” he said.
“A lot of four-year programs don’t progress as much over the course of a season because their juniors and seniors are already pretty established while our freshman make such a huge jump competition-wise from high school, and our sophomores make a huge jump, too.”
Pirates capsule
• Last Year: 19-1-1 overall, 15-0-0 (first) in North Division; won 3rd NWAC Championship.
• Head coach: Kanyon Anderson (eighth season) (123-19-13). (3-0 in 2017).
Top returners: Akari Hoshino (GK), Sydney Warren (F), Emelie Small (D); Malia Brudvik (D); Kelly Kevershan (MF); Tatiana Hagan (MF).
• Newcomers: Halle Watson (D); Bri Duran (MF); Jordyn DiCintio (F); Janis Martinez-Ortiz (MF).
• Outlook: Peninsula should again dominate and win an in-flux North Region for the seventh straight season. A seventh-straight trip to the NWAC Final Four also is likely.
Peninsula College Athletics The 2017 Peninsula College Pirates women’s soccer team.
