The Southwestern Oregon Community College women’s basketball team opens up the season against Yakima, Wash., tonight, and second-year coach Mike Herbert is ready to see where his team stands.

“I’m excited, coming off a 9-15 season, to see what we can do,” he said. “It’ll be a good test to kind of see where we are.”

With new recruits to work with the four returning sophomores, Rose Mattson, Kara Miller, Jessica Hatley and Lindsay Sommers, Herbert thinks depth will help the Lakers.

“With a second full year of recruits, we’re hoping to have more depth, more people who can score,” Herbert said.

One of the newcomers, Brianna George, graduated from Marshfield last year. She’ll also play softball at Southwestern, and Herbert said she’s balanced both sports’ fall workouts and her schoolwork well.

“She’s very talented,” Herbert said. “She’s a good student and a good athlete. I could see her starting sometime this season.”

While George was a shooting guard for the Pirates, fellow freshman Natalie Manning from Pacific was a standout point guard in high school. Manning also played soccer for the Lakers in the fall.

Herbert said the Lakers have a few taller girls this year, with the addition of freshmen Kelly Millager and Megan Halstead, both measuring at 6 feet, 1 inch, to bolster the 6-foot, 3-inch Sommers.

Herbert said Lane Community College, which has won three of the last four NWAACC South Region titles, will be a difficult opponent, as will Umpqua and Clackamas. He thinks the Lakers can compete with them, vying for one of the top four spots that head to the playoffs.

“If we do what we’re capable of doing, we can be right in there,” he said.