The women's soccer team, which went 10-6-5 overall and 3-3-1 in University Athletic Association play last season, lost only two seniors to graduation last year. Both of those seniors, however, were among the top players in the program's history. Forward Melissa Gorenkoff '10 played in 81 games in four years with the Judges. After scoring eight goals in each of her sophomore and junior seasons, she scored just four goals last year. Still, Gorenkoff contributed with a team-leading 10 assists.

She is the team's all-time assists leader with 28 and also won the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England Tournament MVP award in her junior season when the team won its second consecutive championship.

Goalkeeper Hilary Rosenzweig '10 set several school records in her senior season with the Judges last year, including 37 career wins and 23 career shutouts. Last season alone, Rosenzweig had 7.5 shutouts and a .871 save percentage.

Two other goalies from last year, Elyse Phillips '12 and Jaclyn Weinstein '12, both left the team during the offseason, leaving Francine Kofinas '13 as the only remaining goalie from last year's team. Rookies Leah Sax '14 and Katie Weil '14 will join Kofinas, who did not appear in any games last season.

Coach Denise Dallamora isn't sure who will start in goal yet, but she noted that performance in practices would play a large role in determining who receives the starting job.

"[We'll decide based on] who's in the best shape, not injured . who's doing the best [in practice and] who we think is going to step up," Dallamora said.

The goalie at the start of the season, whoever she may be, will be backed by a strong defense that helped secure the team's nine shutouts. Last year's main contributors, defenders Jessica Schulman '12, Francesca Shin '12, Taryn Martiniello '11, Allison Maresca '12 and Alanna Torre '12 all return for the Judges.

On offense, the Judges return their two top scorers from last year. Forward Tiffany Pacheco '11 was second on the team last year in both goals (nine) and assists (six) and tied with midfielder Mimi Theodore '12 for the team lead in points with 24.

Meanwhile, Theodore is coming off a breakout season in which she led the team with 10 goals, including a three-goal game in a 5-1 win over Clark University Sept. 20, 2009.

Theodore also had four assists to tie with Pacheco for the team lead in points.

Theodore commented on what she needs to do personally to improve her overall game for the upcoming season.

"I'm pretty much trying to do the same things as last year," Theodore said. "I just worked hard in the offseason and the summer and continue to work on everything we work on in practice, and hopefully that will translate to games, and hopefully everything will go well from there."

Sofia Vallone '11, who finished fourth in points with 15, scored six goals and had three assists last season, will help anchor the midfielders along with Theodore.

But even with Pacheco's, Theodore's, and Vallone's offensive contributions, the Judges were shut out eight times, including three times in which the Brandeis defense recorded a shutout as well. Fifteen of their 35 goals came in just three games against Bridgewater State College, Clark and UAA opponent Emory University.

The team has a new class of rookies coming in this year as well. Including Sax and Weil, nine new players will join the squad for the upcoming season.

Going into this year, Theodore hopes that another year of experience for her teammates will improve the team's consistency.

"I just think with everyone being a year older, I think that gives us an edge," she said. "People are more aware of what their jobs are, and I think because we have more knowledge about college soccer that it won't take us as long to get a rhythm going."

The women's soccer team will kick off its season Sept. 1 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy at 4 p.m. before hosting Babson College to start the Brandeis Invitational Sept. 4 at 11 a.m.