This season’s Skagit Valley College volleyball team will look a lot like last season’s.

The Cardinals graduated only two players, leaving them primed for a run deep into the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges tournament.

“It’s been nice,” coach Kelsey Savage-Swapp said of having nine returners. “They all know each others strengths and weaknesses, and they’re helping each other turn those weaknesses into strengths.”

The Cardinals went 15-15 last season with a young team. They finished fourth in the North Division, then went two-and-out at the NWAACC tournament.
Now they’ll try to make amends.

“That left a bitter taste in our mouths,” said Savage-Swapp.

Among the returners are three all-North Division players. Shelbi Zanoni was a first-teamer, while Lauren Hope and Ariel Erlenbach made the second team.

Another to watch for is sophomore Lauren Slaymaker. She played middle hitter last season, but this year moves back to her more natural position of outside hitter.

“Last year, she was put into the middle position and she didn’t get to show how good she was,” said Savage-Swapp.

Women’s Soccer
First-year coach Tony Mulbreght has built a team around area players.

Seventeen of the 20 players on his roster are from Skagit and Snohomish counties.

After three practice games — including two against four-year colleges — he’s liked what he’s seen.

“It’s been refreshing to see the incoming freshmen meld very, very well with the returning players,” said Mulbreght. “They understand that the level of play and the speed of the players has increased from the level of the past.”

The Cardinals return six players from a 2008 team that became the first in school history to advance to the NWAACC tournament. Skagit Valley was 9-8-4.

Among the top returners are goalkeeper Adrianne Ridenhour, Bry Manchester and Taylor Madson. Tasha Powell is one of the top freshmen.

The Cardinals, said Mulbreght, will be a fast, physically fit team that will spread the field and play the ball on the ground.

“I’m extremely happy,” said Mulbreght. “The program is headed in a direction that’s very positive. There is a lot of excitement in the program.”

Men’s Soccer
Tao Shen has been putting his players through two-a-day practices for the past 21⁄2 weeks.

That’s the price you pay when you’re trying to get back on top of the NWAACC.

“We’re trying to work as much as we can to be competitive in a very competitive league,” said Shen, a first-year coach.

The Cardinals return seven players from a team that went 1-16-1 last season and finished last in the five-team North Division.

Shen is hoping that with hard work — and about 18 new players — the Cardinals can go from worst to first in their division.

“Definitely one of the goals is to win the North,” he said. “That’s our goal to start out the season.

“I think it’s a realistic goal and I think we should strive for it.”

The Cardinals will be led by their captains — Colton Carr and Michael Jones.

Though a freshman in terms of eligibility, Jones has spent the past two years at Western Washington University.

He did not play soccer at Western.

This year, having regained his passion for the sport, he is with the Cardinals, and going to school at both Western and Skagit Valley.

Cross Country
The Cardinals have 17 runners in the program, giving them enough to field full men’s and women’s teams.

That’s something they weren’t able to do last season.

“I would like to put Skagit on the map,” said coach Maureen Rowland, an assistant coach in the program last season. “We have strong enough runners where we can do that.”

Skagit Valley has 12 runners on the men’s team, including three who ran on Burlington-Edison’s Class 2A state high school championship teams of 2006 and 2007.

The three are Frank Sosa, Milan Drake and Tyler Armenta.

Another top runner for the men’s team will be Logan Johnson.

The women’s team has three top runners — Paige Pearson, who was sixth in the NWAACC North Division last season while running at Whatcom, and freshmen Alanna Steele and Hannah McKenzie.
Steele and McKenzie ran last season for Sehome, which won a third consecutive Class 2A state title.

• Dan Ruthemeyer can be reached at 360-416-2133 or by e-mail at .