Coaching Staff: Kelly Bryan returns for her 15th season directing the Ladies soccer program. In her previous 14 years, she amassed a 124-114-18 overall coaching record. She's taken her Kenyon teams to seven North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) tournaments and two NCAA tournaments. She scored a pair of NCAC regular-season championships (2006, 2014) and one NCAC tournament championship (2014). Katherine Cobb, a new assistant coach, joins Bryan on the staff. She spent the previous two seasons at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. During her playing days, Cobb was a goalkeeper at University of Southern Maine.

Last Season: For the third straight season, the Ladies finished among the top four teams in the conference and earned a spot in the NCAC tournament. The Ladies were 6-10-2 overall, but posted a 4-3-1 record in NCAC play to garner the No. 4 seed in postseason play, which ended with a first-round loss to top-seeded Wittenberg University.

Team Makeup: The Ladies will be young. Heading toward preseason, 65 percent of the roster is comprised of freshmen and sophomores. The senior class returns eight players, while the junior class checks in with just three. Experience, however, will not be a factor. The Ladies return 10 players who each started 10 games or more last season.

Top Returnees: Junior Brianna Maggard and senior Gillian Blackwell are the team's top returning goal scorer and assist leader, respectively, with three apiece last season. Fellow senior Emma Klug does a solid job in the midfield, while seniors Heather Pacheco and Campbell Fee are stalwarts in the defensive zone.

Significant Losses: In terms of quantity, the Ladies didn't lose a lot. There was just one senior on last year's team. In terms of quality, however, they lost a bunch. That lone senior was Maggie Smith, who led the team with 11 goals and 23 points. Her numbers aside, the rest of the 2016 team accounted for 11 goals and 31 points. Smith exited the program ranked sixth all-time at Kenyon with 36 career goals.

Team Strength: Although the roster leans toward the young side, experience and leadership will be key factors for the Ladies. The eight returning seniors all have played in postseason games and combined they account for over 200 collegiate games started. Fee, Klug and Maggard are team captains that will encourage and challenge teammates, while getting a versatile freshman class up to speed as quickly as possible.

Potential Problem: With the departure of Smith, the Ladies enter 2017 looking for goal scorers. Some returning players like Maggard, Gwyneth Phillips and Morgan Engmann found the net a couple times last season, but the offensive consistency was lacking and is something the Ladies will have to iron out in order to keep climbing up the NCAC standings.

Schedule Check: The schedule, especially in the early going, looks kind. Nine of the first ten games are at home, including the season opener against Capital University (September 1) and the conference-opener against Wittenberg University (September 23). The back end of the schedule will be a bit more difficult, as the Ladies hit the road for six of their final seven contests. Five of those six final games are against conference opponents. The strength of Kenyon's opponents will also be difficult to handle. The Ladies face five teams that made it to the NCAA tournament last season, with two of those teams ranked within the Top-25 in 2017 preseason polls.