The Brandeis Women's basketball team returns to the hardwood this season as the reigning Eastern College Athletic Conference New England champions. After what many called the best season in the program's history, the team is poised and ready to take their game to the next level and shoot for a chance at the NCAA Division-III tournament. Last season the team produced an incredible 22-5 record, tied for second in the UAA, won the ECAC championship and set a new record for wins in a single season in the program's history. The team returns for the 2004-2005 season with just two of its starters from last season. Although they lost two key starters, all-American Danielle Fitzpatrick and Jayne Wise to graduation, the Judges hope this year's squad has enough talent to live up to the expectations set by last year's success.Guard Amanda Demartino '06 and forward Christine Clancy '06 are the only two starters that remain on the roster from last season.

This year's team is also relatively young with five first-years, three sophomores, four juniors and just one senior. Despite her team's youth, Coach Carol Simon believes that her team's chances are just as good as last season.

"I think we have more depth this year," Simon said. "It's a different team, we lost an all-American player, but I think we're definitely deeper."

"All of the newcomers have the ability to be significant factors this season and really contribute," Emily Malkin '05 said. "But we also have a core group of veterans ready to step up into the roles vacated by our graduating seniors."

The team looked solid in their first exhibition game of the season, a 65-53 win over Clark University. Caitlin Malcolm '07 led the Judges with 18 points while Sara Bechtold '06 chipped in with 13 points. Basia

Grzyb '07 and Jaime Capra '08 each had 11 points.

While the team has changed quite a bit, many of the impact players from last year still remain. Second team all-UAA selection forward Malcolm returns along with fellow classmate Gryzb and starters Demartino and Clancy.

The quick guard Gryzb will start this season after coming off the bench for the Judges last year. Malcolm came off the bench as a key contributor last season but will start for the Judges in her second season.

"[Malcolm] had a great freshman season," Malkin said. "She's improving her game all the time so she is going to be a real force in the UAA."

The team will also look to its five freshmen and one transfer student to step into big shoes. The Judges will look to newcomers Capra, Kiersten Holgash '08 and Courtney Tremblay '08 to step into the guard positions and Jess Black '08, Cassie Loftus '08 and Bechtold to take on the post positions.

Simon knows that all but one of her newcomers have no experience at the collegiate level but is confident that each one will learn quickly.

Aside from the five rookies the Judges also brought in Bechtold, a transfer student from Lafayette College. Simon is elated to have Bechtold here after trying to recruit Bechtold almost two years ago when she was a senior in high school.

"She's a great kid and there's always room for great people on this team," Simon said. "We told her there was a place for her a couple years ago when we recruited her and then she actually contacted us telling us she wanted to transfer and we worked with her on the transfer process."

While Simon is very happy to have Bechtold, she knows that it will take time before Bechtold learns the ropes.

"She's still learning our system," said Simon. "It's like a junior coming in as a freshman, but there's been a tremendous amount of improvement in the past three weeks. If she continues to improve, she's going to be very good for us."

So far Bechtold seems happy with her decision

"It's not as different as I expected it to be," Bechtold said. "The program here is really strong, the girls have a lot of pride in their past and the coach really wants to keep that strong drive going."

Like any other team, chemistry is extremely important for the Judges. In order for their season to go well, they must learn to play together as a team. Simon believes that playing together is a necessary part of the game, but she also believes that the team must be tenacious in order to be successful.

"I think chemistry is key," Simon said. "It's nothing a coach can teach and I think that just has to do with how your team reacts to each other. For us to be successful we have to be a really good defensive team. We have to be in your face, we have to create an identity for ourselves and what type of team we want to be."

The Judges play in one of the most competitive conferece in Division III, but are ready for the challenge of UAA play.

Last year the team was rolling towards a conference championship, but a disastrous late weekend in which the team suffered back-to-back losses to Chicago and Washington University of St. Louis extinguished the team's NCAA tournament bid hopes. Even sweeter than repeating as ECAC champions would be the opportunity to play in the national tournament.

"Our main goal is always to try to make it to the NCAA tournament," Simon said. "I think that if we compete day in and day out in practice, I don't worry about the results, because the results will happen."

"We want to win," Bechtold said. "We don't want to lose any home games, we don't want to go 0-2 on the road. We set a lot of big goals for ourselves, but we want to do big things."

In order to accomplish their lofty goals the team will have to jump over certain hurdles that lie in their way. The Judges know that everyone will be gunning for them after last year.

"I think the biggest challenge is that the bull's eye is on our back," Simon said. "We have to be up for every game, that's going to be the challenge."

Another challenge the team may face is to stay healthy. Right now, Loftus and Clancy are both rehabilitating from injuries and there are no sure bets that the rest of the team will stay healthy.

"It's critical that this team stay healthy throughout the season," Malkin said. "Although we have a deep bench, we really need everyone to stay healthy so we can give teams different looks."

The Judges open their regular season against Russell Sage College at 6 p.m. on Saturday as Brandeis hosts a Tip-Off tournament this weekend.

If the Judges can get past Russel Sage they will play in the tournament championship game on Sunday at 3 p.m. Until then, Bechtold is thrilled to be with such a committed group.

"We have girls who want to be here," Bechtold said. "These girls are in the gym three hours a day because they want to be there. They're not here on athletic scholarships, they're here because they love basketball. We have that inner drive and it's really a different motivation.