The Clark College women’s team opened this season with a 5-0 loss to Highline.
On Wednesday at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, the Penguins will shoot for a better start to the postseason. Clark (7-7-6), the third-place team in the South Region, faces West co-champion Highline (17-1-2) at 1 p.m. in the first round of the Northwest Athletic Conference playoffs.
“We’re a whole different team now than we were the first time we played them,” Clark freshman Brenna Bogle said.
In truth, this is a different program than it was in August. Back then, first-year coach Sean Janson and his players were just getting acquainted.
Janson, who spent the previous seven seasons assisting Biniam Afenegus and the successful Clark men’s soccer program, believes his team would compete for the South Region title if the season started today. He was hired three months before the season after Rochelle Hearns left to take the top assistant position at Portland State.
Janson inherited a 13-player roster. With only three months to recruit, he focused on local players. Seventeen of the 23 players are from Clark County, and only one is from outside the region. Janson and associate coach Kat Tarr are Clark County natives who want their program to have strong local ties.
“We’re both local kids and we want the program to represent the best of Clark County,” Janson said.
One of the locals is midfielder Nicole McEllrath, a 1997 Evergreen High graduate who is at Clark for its firefighting program. Janson, a 1995 Evergreen graduate, has known McEllrath since high school and encouraged her play this fall for the Penguins.
Among the Clark County core are defenders who have developed into a nice foundation. Leading the way is sophomore Krista Campbell. The Skyview graduate was a NWAACC regional all-star last season and Janson calls her perhaps the best defender in the league.
A Sept. 27 win over Lane Community College of Eugene — which lost only twice in winning the South Division — was a turning point in the season, Campbell said.
“Up until then, I think our team and coaches were unsure of how good we were and whether we had a shot at making the playoffs,” Campbell said. “That was a defining moment in our season that showed we could compete with the best teams.”
Campbell and fellow Skyview graduate Jordan Hollamon anchor a defense that includes sophomore Ashley Steinbrenner (Fort Vancouver) and freshman Megan Fox (Ridgefield).
Sophomore Tammy Hilgendorf (Prairie) and freshman Karina Jimenez (Ridgefield) play central midfield positions. Up front freshman Brooke Kates (Ridgefield) teams with Bogle, who has scored a team-leading 12 goals.
Bogle said sophomore leadership and encouragement from the coaches allowed this Clark team to reach the playoffs.
Now, these Penguins would like to make something of this opportunity.
“Win or lose,” Bogle said, “our coaches always tell us to just play our game and put in the effort and we’ll have no regrets.”
