The Stevenson women's basketball team has enjoyed unprecedented success over the last four seasons, making three ECAC Tournament trips and the program's inaugural NCAA appearance in 2015.

In order to continue that success this season, the Mustangs will have to attempt to replace the production of Sara Tarbert, who is now a member of the Mustang coaching staff.  Tarbert rewrote the women's basketball program's record book and was a consensus All-American in each of her final two seasons.

Despite the graduation of Tarbert and classmates Kameron Ward and Niavanni Grant, head coach Jackie Boswell's cupboard is far from bare.  The Mustangs return three starters and have also brought in a talented 11-member freshman class.

"In the three seniors we had, we lost a lot, even though it was just three bodies, it was a lot of points, a lot of rebounds, with Sara Tarbert being a big part of that.  I just felt like, you don't know what you're missing until you don't have it, and I wanted to make sure we had all of our bases covered," said seventh-year head coach Boswell on her large recruiting class.

"We brought in two very athletic point guards, a couple shooters, and a couple of big kids, so we feel like we've covered the entire spectrum and really just want to keep the competitiveness going with our returners, not wanting them to get comfortable with their role."

The Mustangs' roster features two seniors in Imani Sanders and Kristine Tennyson.  Sanders has started 50 games at the point over her last two seasons, while Tennyson looks to play a larger role this winter after being nagged by injuries.

"Imani's had a solid career here, and we expect the same out of her to really be the floor leader on the court.  Off the court she's a great leader as well.  We know what we're getting out of her," said Boswell. 

"(Kristine) is a kid that when we recruited her, we had really high hopes for her, and she's just been nagged by injury after injury, and really hopeful for her that she can produce in a way a senior should produce.  She's worked really hard to get herself back into shape."

The other returning starters for the Mustangs are junior Jonyae Curry and sophomore Hannah Crist.  Curry earned MAC Commonwealth Honorable Mention after averaging 10.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game, while Crist started all but Senior Night as a freshman and was second on the team with 33 three-pointers.

"Jonyae's going to be looked upon to take more active roles on the offensive end.  The defensive end comes very easy to her right now because of the work she's put in the last two years.  She's just going to be fun to watch this year," said Boswell.  "Hannah got a ton of minutes and a lot of starts as a freshman.  We're going to put a little bit more pressure on her as a sophomore to pick up some of that scoring."

As far as the relatively young roster (five upperclassmen and 16 freshmen and sophomores), Boswell knows that with that youth will come mistakes, but that those mistakes aren't anything they can't overcome as the Mustangs work to get better every day.

"As a coaching staff, we've already decided that we're going to have to accept some mistakes that come with youth.  However, I do have confidence in their athleticism that those mistakes are going to be as prevalent and will be easy to overcome," said Boswell.  "I know we're going to be really young, but I am very much looking forward to our returning kids taking a more active role on both ends of the floor, and I think quite a few of our freshmen are going to see a lot of minutes.  I am excited about some of the things they can do."

"We're trying to avoid the word 'win' throughout the season.  We're focusing on getting better every day, and then we think all of that will take care of itself."