The Cornerstone University women’s basketball team kicks off the season at home against Grace Bible College Nov. 5, at 7 p.m.

Last year, the Golden Eagles finished the season 25-9 overall and 13-1 in the Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference to earn their sixth trip in nine years to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament.  As WHAC co-champions with Davenport University, they finished nationals in the sweet 16 and were ranked 14^th in the nation among NAIA Division II colleges.

“I was very pleased with our season last year,” said Carla Fles, women’s head basketball coach. “Last year we had a lot of freshmen, we didn’t have any seniors, so I didn’t know how well we would do, [but] it ended up being that our freshmen really contributed a lot.”

Sophomore Brooke Carter was WHAC New Comer of the Year last season.

“She’s got a target on her back having been New Comer of the Year last year,” Fles said. “I expect her to probably produce even more than what she did last year [and] to be more consistent.”

Fles said Carter will continue to start along with seniors Jenna Plewes, Kara Overbeek and Dana Kraai, but the fifth spot is still undecided.

“She’s a good defender,” Fles said. “She’s got a good mid-range jump shot, she can finish pretty well [and] she’s athletic. I’ve seen a lot of good things about her.”

Fles said that the team needs Carter to play because she is one of three post players and will have to fill in for Amanda Gorski and Ali Keag, who are no longer on the team. Gorski transferred and Keag isn’t playing due to knee problems.

The top returning player is Plewes, who received honorable mention All-American and First Team All-Conference last year. She is also one of the senior team captains along with Overbeek and Tami Thelen.

“Jenna is the most decorated player coming back,” Fles said. “She has received a lot of post season honors.”

With a team that includes three seniors, one junior, four sophomores and four freshmen, Fles said this team’s strengths will be speed and perimeter players.

“We’ll be a fast time, we’ll be able to put quite a few points on the board,” she said. “We’ll just be able to full-court press more than we ever have in the past, and we’re deeper on the perimeter.”

Fles’ vision for the year is for the team to be better than they were last year.

“It kinda encompasses a lot of things,” she said. “To be better teammates to each other, to be better communicators on and off the floor [and] a better [NAIA] finish.”

Fles said the team is ready to move beyond the sweet sixteen in the NAIA tournament this season.

“The girls are like, ‘We want to get past the sweet 16, we want to get to the elite eight or higher at the national tournament,’” she said.  They also want to add another WHAC conference championship title to the four they already have.

Team captain Overbeek has high aspirations for the team.

“I expect that we will do as good, if not better, than last season,” she said in an e-mail. “I expect that we will win the conference again, stay ranked in the top 25 in the nation and make it three trips in a row to the national tournament.”

In preparing the team for the upcoming season, Fles recognized that some things would have to change.

“We have some new offensive stuff and defensive stuff that I think will help us reach our potential,” she said. “If we did the same stuff we did last year, I think it would be more constricting, where this year, I’m kinda giving them a little bit more control.”

The women’s basketball season is also starting with nine players instead of 12 because three are still involved in other sports.

“But we have been successful with small rosters in the past and I think that we can be successful again,” Fles said.

The head coach said that she is expecting contribution from her freshmen during practice time.

“[I am] expecting them to come in and compete with the seniors and not just kinda sit back and [say] ‘well, I’m a freshmen. I’m not going to get any playing time, because they are, we need them from the beginning,’” she said.

Above all, she wants to finish the season well.

“Last year we hoped to do well, but everything was kinda unknown,” Fles said. This year we know what we have. We know what our seniors are capable of doing, [and] what Brooke Carter can do. I really feel that our freshmen can come in and contribute right away.”

Now that the team is solid, Fles said that to win is “becoming an expectation again.”