SALEM, Ore. – A 2023 graduating class off only four Warriors implied that Corban University Softball head coach Danyelle Huber would have an experienced group returning to the program earlier this past fall, which she was able to compliment with an even bigger recruiting class to set the team up for a spring season with endless possibilities at stake.
"This group of Warriors is excited and hungry for competition," Coach Huber stated when asked to highlight her team's expectations as they enter the preliminary stages of early preseason. "They have a spark and light within them that will help drive them through a full season and tough lineup of opponents on a weekly basis."
The Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) hasn't changed one bit in regards to housing national championship caliber programs, with the conference now holding three of the last five national titles thanks to another trophy brought home by Southern Oregon University. In addition to the Raiders' hardware, Oregon Tech played to a national runner-up title behind SOU for the second time in the past three seasons, while The College of Idaho and Eastern Oregon both played deep into their respective opening rounds in the spring of 2023. All four programs have opened up their 2024 seasons in the NAIA Top 25 Preseason Coaches' Poll and will once again lead the charge of representing the top softball conference in the NAIA.
Corban was selected to an eighth-place finish in this year's CCC Coaches' Preseason Poll, meaning the Navy and Gold will need to leapfrog at least two teams based on expected team performance if they want to make a return to the postseason in 2024 after finishing 10-34 overall in the spring of 2023. Outside of the aforementioned conference powerhouse teams as of late, the CCC Tournament field has consistently hosted a different variation of the now ten softball programs every single year, meaning the Warriors have every reason to believe they could once again jump back into playoff contention after a one-year hiatus from the postseason last spring.
The Warriors will kick their regular season off on Friday, February 9th with four-straight doubleheaders days through Monday the 12th, where they will play four different GSAC and Cal-Pac teams, three of which were postseason teams for their respective conferences last year. They'll start with Menlo College and Jessup University in back-to-back single game doubleheaders with both teams, followed by a neutral site twin bill with Westcliff University and conclude with a road double feature at Simpson University before making the trek back to the Willamette Valley.
Coach Huber has added one final non-conference matchup since her schedule announcement last month, as her squad will play a single doubleheader with NCAA DIII Pacific University up in Forest Grove on Saturday, February 17th. Their two games with the Boxers will represent the final non-conference doubleheader of the 2024 season before they embark on the grueling conference slate.
A four-game road series in snowy Montana will represent the Warriors first CCC contests of the year on the first two days of March, as the University of Providence will host Corban at the Multi-Sports Complex. In typical conference fashion, the first three games of the series with CCC opponents will count towards conference record, while the fourth and final game will be played out as a non-conference contest that will still count towards regular season record.
The program's home opener will take place on March 8th on Warrior Field at the foot of Corban's campus, where they'll host No. 24-ranked Eastern Oregon to kick off the first of four home series this year. The following weekend, the Warriors will travel to Caldwell, Idaho to battle the No. 13-ranked Yotes at Symms Field, ending one of two stretches during the regular season where the Navy and Gold will take on top 25 opponents in back-to-back weekends.
Corban's second home matchup of the 2024 season is scheduled for March 22nd and 23rd with Carroll College making the long journey from Helena to Salem, then the Warriors will make their annual southern Oregon trip to visit No. 1-ranked OIT to conclude the month of March.
Warrior Nation will have an opportunity to see their program battle the defending national champions on Warrior Field on April 5th and 6th, marking the Raiders' first trip to the state capital since the 2019 season. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and spring schedule changes, the Corban-SOU conference rivalry hasn't been played out on Corban's campus in over four years, providing the team with extra motivation as they prepare to host the three-time national champions.
The final road trips of the 2024 season will be short and close to home for the Warriors, as they'll make back-to-back journeys south and north of the I-5 corridor throughout the middle of April to Bushnell University and Warner Pacific University, respectively.
Finally, the Navy and Gold are scheduled to host the University of British Columbia on April 26th and 27th to conclude the regular season, hoping to lock up a postseason berth to the CCC Tournament that will take place over the first weekend of May. The regular season champions and tournament champions will earn automatic bids to the NAIA National Tournament, which will conclude on May 29th with a national champion crowned in Columbus, Georgia.
"Both our returning and incoming pitchers this year are a group that we are excited about as a team that will provide us with an extra edge throughout the season," began Coach Huber regarding her 2024 roster. "Our entire lineup is something that has been diligently worked on for the past several months in our fall training. Being poised, in control, and ready to swing is something you will see from this group of young women."
Coach Huber retained 17 of her 25-player roster from the 2023 season and added 10 student-athletes around the diamond thanks to her most recent recruiting class, with every position group around the field growing in depth and providing her coaching staff with numerous lineup potentials every single day.
With two of her most consistent seniors from last year now serving on the coaching/support staff, Madison Wyllie and Morgan Gleeson, the first challenge for Coach Huber will be replacing the everyday output of her now assistant coach and graduate assistant in the right field corner and behind the plate. Fortunately for the program, the team's outfield and catching groups are two of the deepest positional areas they have as they head into the 2024 season, with both returners and newcomers battling for those coveted starting spots.
It's a crowded outfield group that looks to replace Wyllie as the starting rightfielder, as sophomore utility player Isabel Carattini and senior utility player California Johnson lead the returning Warriors in bolstering an already impressive outfielder unit, while junior outfielder Madelynne Pierce and sophomore utility player Gianna Redman have both entered their names into contention as transfers looking to impress in their first season as Warriors.
Working counterclockwise around the outfield, junior outfielder Jody Fischer is expected to be back in her natural habitats of both centerfield and in that leadoff spot at the top of Coach Huber's lineup sheet, while sophomore outfielder Josie Landis will look to prove herself as the leading leftfielder on the team after a freshman season where she traded places among a crowded group of worthy candidates throughout the year.
Despite a majority of the 2024 squad being represented by student-athletes that filled nearly every infield position, the addition of key newcomers will provide the corners and middle infielders with plenty of options as the starting ten begin to solidify themselves over the first two weeks of non-conference play.
Starting at third base, returning senior Sarah Parker is in a unique situation where a key newcomer enters with not only experience at the hot corner, but has started at the position with the former CCC softball program at Northwest for every season of her collegiate career thus far. However, as expected with new beginnings, graduate student utility player Sydney Spickelmier, formerly Sydney Maurer while an Eagle, will be making the transition to shortstop to work directly next to Parker rather than competing for playing time within the same position.
Several Warriors will be providing support alongside Parker at third, including Carattini and transfer junior infielder Breanne Cox. Meanwhile, Spickelmier will join a loaded middle infield position group with a handful of both returners and newcomers capable of commanding the infield. Redshirt junior infielder Cambria Kerze and sophomore utility player Amy Jankowski represent a handful of the Corban student-athletes prepared to hop into the middle of the diamond when called upon.
With Kerze having played both shortstop and second base over her Corban career, Warrior Nation can expect the Roseville native to provide the same support across the bag when not in the game at shortstop, with transfer junior infielder Alexis Figueroa slated to join the mix as well after two impressive seasons at the College of the Siskiyous.
Having to replace one of the greatest first basemen in Corban softball program history in the form of now graduated Warrior Paia'ala Wilcox-Molina, Coach Huber has numerous faces she can turn to with both first base experience and can hit up and down her lineup card. Of the returning right corner infielders, seniors Tatiana Liu and Sage Vanterpool alongside sophomore Lola Benjamin represent the infielder exclusive ranks, while sophomore pitcher Vanesa Quinones and transfer sophomore pitcher Kate Banks can slide out of the circle and over to first base as well if need be.
Behind the plate, the roaming assistance of senior utility player Samantha Martinez appears to have found a home in the catching gear for her final season of softball, as the true utility knife has played nearly every position on the field while a member of the program and looks to have found her calling commanding the zone to end her collegiate career. However, Johnson and transfer junior catcher Alicia Chavez are both projected to see time catching for the Warriors' pitching staff as well in an attempt to offer both relief for the entire positional group and match up with specific teams throughout the regular season depending on the individual catcher's strengths.
Out of the entire pitching staff that logged multiple appearances for the Warriors in 2023, all six of those pitchers have returned for the upcoming spring season and have an abundance of extra arms represented in Coach Huber's recruiting class to provide even more support in the circle. As a true freshman, Quinones led the team in nearly every pitching statistic and has the capability of doing so again this season as the team's game one ace, while Jankowski, senior pitcher Alise Olson, and junior pitcher Emmaleena Wood will all be involved in either making key starts or appearances out of the bullpen.
Senior Madison Russell and Vanterpool are the bullpen arms that have returned to take another crack at the NAIA, while the transfer additions of Banks and Redman offer Coach Huber's staff with continual possibilities as both the season and roster progresses forward.
Coach Huber concluded her preseason thoughts on this year's team by sharing, "This group has an innate drive to compete to the best of their abilities, and we will get our first opportunity to see that come to fruition when we hit the road in California for our first non-conference games. We are all full of emotion as the season draws near, and general excitement is at the forefront of every player's mind."
The competition is fierce this season, both from an opposing dugout and positional group perspective, yet Coach Huber is confident that this group of young student-athletes are all capable of rising above the expectations that their non-conference schedule and conference have set before them. Corban softball is primed to make a push back to their national caliber level of play with the support of their returning core, talented transfers, and every member of Warrior Nation at their side.
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