Benefield: SRJC women steeled for playoff pressure

In the second half of the match between the Santa Rosa Junior College women’s soccer team and visiting Diablo Valley College on Thursday, three Vikings were sprinting into Bear Cubs’ territory, the ball at the feet of the most forward attacker. It presented the most serious threat Diablo Valley College had mounted all afternoon.

The Vikings had numbers: Only Bear Cubs captain Chelsea Frostick was between the onslaught and goalkeeper Morgan Jernigan. But Frostick was on her heels, trying to slow the attack until help arrived.

Then all at once, just after Frostick called to her teammates for help, she showed she didn’t need any. The sophomore defender stopped backpedaling, stepped in and immediately picked the Vikings dribbler clean. Frostick, who played her prep soccer at Montgomery, was gone before the charging Vikings knew what hit them.

That single play could very well epitomize the Bear Cubs’ season: on their heels one minute, staring in the face of a near disastrous situation, then suddenly prevailing and mounting a counter attack.

The Bear Cubs, in their third season under coach Tracy Hamm, have been nearly done in by injuries. Sprinkle in a few players who simply walked away, and you have likely the most meager bench in all of the Big 8 Conference.

But despite the two ACLs tears, the strained quad, the sprained ankle, the car accident - or maybe because of all of that - the Bear Cubs snagged a share of second place in the powerful Big 8 Conference and earned a respectable fourth seed in the California Community College Athletic Association state playoffs. The seedings, which will be made official on Tuesday, are expected to give the Bear Cubs home games in the opening rounds of the playoffs.

But considering how the team has handled a staggering run of injuries and bad luck, there might be a few folks out there who think they’d be better served with a low-seed, high-mileage road trip for the playoffs. The tougher the better. These Bear Cubs seems to bare their teeth a little more when things get rough.

“I think we have a shot at making a Final Four run,” Hamm said after the squad tied Diablo Valley 0-0 this week to close out conference play with a 9-3-2 record. “Maybe a few months ago, with some of those key injuries, I don’t know if I would have said the same thing. But I think the team has responded really well to what has been thrown at us.”

Against Diablo Valley, the Bear Cubs had a whopping two subs. Their goalkeeper, Windsor grad Jernigan, has been hobbled by a bum leg all season. She’s only been punting the ball for the last few games - a dramatic change for a team which had regularly launched counter attacks based on her deep kicks. Rest her? Can’t. The Bear Cubs have no backup keeper.

Players across the field are playing out of their natural positions by necessity.

Perhaps most telling: Hamm, a Pac-10 All-Conference and All-West Region defender when she suited up for Cal, is playing a three-defender scheme when the majority of teams they play run four or even five players in the back. She said she’d rather rely on three solid defenders than give the opponent a soft spot to attack.

So even Coach is having to play out of her comfort zone a bit.

Adjust, manage, move on. It’s the Bear Cub way.

“We are kind of like, ‘What else have you got for us?’ This is just a funky year, but what can you do?” she said.

Well, you can win, for one thing.

The Bear Cubs beat and tied Modesto, the team that won the Big 8. They also beat San Francisco, the squad that finished second in the Coast-North Conference and beat Feather River, the winner of the Golden Valley Conference.

“I told the girls, ‘We are overachieving at this point; that is a testament to how mentally tough you guys are,’?” she said.

And the playing out of position, the playing with no subs, playing with key players cheering from the sideline instead of suited up to play, could actually be an advantage come postseason. Hamm said her squad has seen it all this year - there will be no surprises when the heat of the playoffs kicks in.

“I don’t think there is something we haven’t seen yet or overcome,” Hamm said.

Late in the season, some teams seem battle worn. The Bear Cubs prefer to call it battle tested.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com and on Twitter @benefield

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Editor’s Note: This story incorrectly name the opponent to SRJC, Feather River College, the name has been fixed in the story above.