WSC women’s soccer starts off the year with new faces and new attitudes.

Last year’s team finished with a 4-11-1 record, but with the return of the team’s three top scorers and eight new players, head coach Bruce Erickson looks forward to this upcoming season.

“I’m feeling pretty good, and we are getting better in many ways,” Erickson said.

The eight signees, seven freshmen and one junior college transfer, come from all over the region, including North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and even California.

This is Erickson’s second season as head coach for the Wildcats. During his first season, he achieved the best record for a season in school history.

With his addition of the eight, as well as the returners, Erickson hopes that the ball will find the net more often.

“We’ve got more players who can score this year,” he said in a preseason interview. “We’re not going to be a team that has a girl who can score 15-20 goals, which would be great to have, but I think we have about a half-dozen or so girls who can get five or six. I like the pieces that we’ve added as far as incoming players are concerned.”

For this upcoming season, the team was picked to finish 11th in the Northern Sun Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll released earlier in the month by the league office in Burnsville, Minn.

Wildcat senior Kelsey Engstrom and sophomore Alexis Strothers were listed as Wayne State’s Players to Watch in the NSIC this season, both of whom were top scorers for the team.

The first games for WSC start later this week, when the team makes a trip to Colorado for two non-conference games. The games will be held in Colorado Springs, as well as Lakewood, Colo.

The Lady ‘Cats continue the beginning of the year with another non-conference game against Nebraska-Kearney next Wednesday and finish off on Friday with their first league game against Augustana University.

“Augustana is the best team in the conference,” Erickson said. “The schedule this year is going to be tough.”