SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Lake Superior State women's basketball team has been selected to finish tenth in the GLIAC preseason poll, as voted on by the coaches, on Monday.

"We're excited about the amount of talent and depth that we have that can come in and give us a lot of great minutes," said LSSU Head Coach Brandon Lokken.

The Lakers will be debuting a much different looking team than a year ago after losing seniors Margot Woughter, Kelly Olthof, and an all-time Laker great in Mattison Rayman with Woughter and Rayman having combined for 51 percent of the team's offensive production last season, and they will look to their core of returnees, headlined by reigning GLIAC Freshman of the Year Grace Bradford (Maple City, Mich.), to help pick up the slack. 

"Obviously losing such key contributors can be something you have to fill in," said Lokken. "Grace has had a great freshman year, but her offseason was been awesome. She has really come back in the early part of our practices and looked like she is ready to take that next step in her sophomore year"

In the offseason, the Lakers also brought in a class of six freshmen in Maddie Bradford (Maple City, Mich.), Makenna Clement (Byron, Mich.), Breah Golden (Arcadia, Wis.), Lena Pleaugh (Gwinn, Mich.), Layne Sleight (Jackson, Mich.), and Ryleigh Zinn (Genesee, Mich.) to go along with a pair of transfers in Taylor Stacy (Toledo, Ohio) and Iara Navarro (Parana, Entre Rios, Argentina).

"I think a lot of them can make an impact early and often. We've got people contributing every day whether it's [Golden] and her ability to run the show, [Stacy] and her ability to shoot, [Clement] has made a lot of great plays, and I can keep going down the line because each person has had days of practice where they are really impacting us," said Lokken. "There is going to be a lot of competition for minutes on the floor which is a good healthy place to be, and we want that kind of competitiveness every day."

LSSU will have plenty of opportunities to get their newcomers up to speed early on in front of their fans with five of six games on their November slate taking place at home.

"The Bud Cooper has been a really friendly place to us," said Lokken. "We've enjoyed the energy of the crowd. It's always good to be in the gym you practice in everyday where you are used to shooting, so we want to take advantage of this early opportunity to be at home to start our season off on the right foot."

The Lakers are set to officially open their season on Friday, Nov. 10 when they host the Findlay Oilers as part of the GLIAC/G-MAC Crossover with tipoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

"This is a team full of energy and passion, and they just compete really hard," said Lokken. "I think that's a fun brand of basketball to watch. I think that if you come out to the Bud Cooper, you're going to see a team that is going to lay it on the line every night."