Last season the Brandeis women's soccer team saw a strong performance from its rookie class. All 16 rookies played in at least one game, and first-years made up three of the team's top five point-scorers. But after coming up short in their goal of making the NCAA Tournament last season, the team hopes this year's crop of rookies can have similar success."For the last two years, we've only been one game off [from making NCAAs], so I think we'll play hard, work hard [this season], and winning will take care of itself," goalie Hillary Rosenzweig '10 said.

"We do have equally high expectations for this [rookie] class," coach Denise Dallamora said.

Five rookies are joining the team this year, including one goalie, Francine Kofinas '13. The other four players-Brooke Gruman '13, Maegan Bautista '13, Stevie Phillis '13, and Zoe Siegel '13 can play all over the field, according to Dallamora, who will take advantage of the newcomers' versatility.

The rookies will join a squad that lost only one member to graduation-defender Meredith Milstein '09. Milstein played in all 22 games last season, starting 14, and served as a leader on and off the field for the team last season.

"I think that it will be hard to replace [Milstein], but she's still only one player," said Rosenzweig. "We have a lot of girls who I'm sure are excited to get her playing time and show what they have on the field."

Despite losing Milstein, the defense, which shut out opponents in 11 of its 22 games last season, returns some key pieces, including defender Taryn Martiniello '11 and defender/midfielder Francesca Shin '12, who were both named honorable mention All-University Athletic Association.

On offense last season, the team was led by reigning Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament MVP forward Melissa Gorenkoff '10, who was also named to the All-UAA second team. Gorenkoff finished the year with team highs in goals and assists, with eight and nine, respectively. Fellow forward Tiffany Pacheco '11 tied Gorenkoff with eight goals and tied for second on the team with four assists.

Also returning is starting goalkeeper Rosenzweig, who finished last season with 78 saves and allowed just 16 goals in 20 games.

While the team finished last season with a 13-7-2 record, they went 0-1-0 in overtime games, and 0-1-2 in double overtime games.

Pacheco feels that in order for the team to get to the next level, this season the players must learn to work through their exhaustion at the end of these long games.

"Pushing ourselves through the double overtimes and the overtimes [will help us get better] and really push ourselves those last 30 minutes and keep them from scoring and scoring goals ourselves-that's one thing we had a problem with last year," Pacheco said.

Dallamora believes the key for this season is for the team to come prepared to play every game.

"I think we have to make sure that we come to every game ready to play," the coach said. "We can't make any assumptions about the quality of the teams we're competing against. We've got to come ready to play and ready to win. A lot of it is certainly hard physically on the practice field, but it's also [about] being mentally prepared, too."

Ultimately the players hope that if they improve enough they will qualify for the NCAA Tournament this season after just barely missing the mark the past two years.

"It all starts with preseason and working hard and getting out the little kinks here and there, and then we need to be really successful in the UAA and definitely more successful in our regional games [in order to make NCAAs]," Pacheco said.

The soccer team kicks off its season at home against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and then plays Nazareth College Sept. 6 at 1 p.m.