By Mike Drake
Peninsula College’s Women’s Soccer is currently on a 10-game winning streak. They stand alone at the top of the NWAC North Division with a 10-0-0 league record and 11-1-1 overall.
Not only are a substantial amount of goals being scored, but 11 shutouts have come from rock-solid defense. The Pirates are 13 points ahead of Whatcom and have secured a playoff appearance.
Head Coach Kanyon Anderson said, “We just clinched a playoff spot with our last win. We need three more point to clinch our sixth consecutive division championship. We have a huge lead in the division and it would be very shocking not to win the division at this point.”
In soccer, a win is worth three points, a tie is worth one and a loss worth zero. Five more league games remain in the season.
Hoku Afong, Marriah Perez and Sydney Warren have all scored 7 goals each, and Eleanor Small scored 6. Cierra Hamilton, Kelly Kevershan, Coby Yoshimura and Hoku Afong are tied with 5 assists each.
A tremendous amount of work goes into preparing a team for success.
“We train about two hours a day, four times a week,” Anderson said. “We have games twice a week which are about three or four-hour commitments, we lift twice a week for about an hour each and we have study hall twice a week for about an hour each. I think that is a total of about 20 hours a week. That doesn’t include bus trips which could add another five to 10 hours a week.”
That’s just the hours that go into athletics. The players are also full-time students so time management is crucial.
“All of these players have the same goal which is to improve day by day, and to be part of great team,” Anderson said. “When I recruited them I was looking for similar thread in how they seemed to approach the game, if they were coachable and if they seemed to like the hard work required to succeed in collegiate athletics.”
“This is a fantastic group of people and players. I am proudest of their commitment to improving and to being good teammates. The talent is there with this group too, but those other elements are more important.”