Despite last season’s disappointing 13-16 record and a second place finish in the South Coast conference, the women’s basketball team is setting high expectations for itself heading into the 2008-09 season.

The women began the season Saturday with a 56-43 victory over Cuyamaca College before losing 57-46 to Ventura College Tuesday.

Even with only three players returning from last season and 10 new players on the roster, forward Jeminy Afusia, tri-captain of the returning players, said this year’s team is potentially very good because the team is a lot closer and works well together as compared to last year’s team.

“One of the problems with last year’s team was that we weren’t a close unit,” Afusia said. “In basketball, communication is vital, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and last year we just didn’t have it.”

Afusia also said despite the youth and inexperience of the new players, the team has a chance to go far this season. The new players on the team are trying their best to learn the offensive and defensive schemes, and despite running the same system as last year, Afusia said this year’s edition has already exceeded last year’s.

“We are running the same system as last year and even though we have ten new players, I can already tell that we are way better,” Afusia said. “They are very committed and we are a close unit. We all get along very well. Even though we didn’t make the playoffs last year, I expect us to do well this year. (Our goals are to) finish first place in conference and go deep in the playoffs.”

With the hard work the new players are putting in, sophomore center Carla Shaw said the youth and inexperience will not hurt the team and she sees it as an advantage. Shaw, one of the new additions, said the team is very athletic and committed on both ends of the court.

“Even though we are young and a lot of us are new on the team, we play very hard on offense and defense,” Shaw said. “We are very deep, one through thirteen, and everybody can go out and produce.”

With all of the new players working hard to blend in with the team, Shaw thinks that it has not been a problem so far.

“People see it as a challenge when a team has this many new players, but we actually see it as an advantage,” Shaw said. “We get a chance to work more together, to learn the system together, thus making our team work better together since a lot of us are learning on the fly.”

One reason why the transition for the new players has been so smooth is because of the tri-captains and the returning players from last year. Freshman point guard Bridget Kadelbach said the three captains have been so patient and have been willing to help out the new players.

“Laquisha (Ward), Afusia and Janina (Hartwill) have all been so helpful and patient,” Kadelbach said. “Because of the bond that we share, and the willingness to help each other out, it has made us close, and it has carried over to the basketball court.”

Although the season just started, assistant coach Reggie Ellis said that he expects great things this season for the Warriors. The team wants to put last year’s disappointing season behind it knowing the bar has been raised fairly high and is expected to be met by the team this season.

“Even though we have so many new players, I don’t consider it a concern at all,” Ellis said. “We are very optimistic about this season and we know that we will do well because everybody is committed.”

The team plans to put an emphasis on defense, rebounding and controlling the ball by not turning the ball over. Ellis said the mindset of the team will be to shut teams down and limit its opponents under a certain amount of points.

“Defense wins ball games for you,” Ellis said. “Your offense comes and goes, but if you can shut a team down, then you have a good chance to win, which is something we feel like we can do consistently.”

Ellis said the team is hoping students and faculty will come to their games this year for support because they promise an exciting season.

“We hope that everyone comes out to support us because this year’s team will be absolutely amazing and we will go far,” Evans said. “We are encouraging everyone to watch us play because this is going to be a great season.”