The Siena Heights women's soccer team started out on the right foot with a season-opening win at Saint Francis (Ind.) last week. The Saints bring back an experienced lineup, featuring eight seniors, to a squad that has appeared in back-to-back WHAC Tournament semifinals.

The group of seniors includes three returning All-WHAC performers in MacKenzie Stenzel (First Team), Olivia Emert (Second Team) and Lily Tiplady (Second Team). Those three, and current junior Alyssa Fischer, were the only four SHU women to appear in all 20 games last year.

The senior class has seen plenty of time on the pitch; seven of the eight played in at least 16 games last year. The other seniors are Allie Balasico, Emily Broman, Morgan Llewellyn, Kiana Rumps and Sophie Zelek.

Last year, Siena Heights ended with an 11-5-4 record while going 5-2-4 in conference play. The Saints finished fifth in the WHAC regular season in 2022 before earning a 2-1 victory against four-seed Northwestern Ohio in the WHAC Tournament quarterfinals. SHU's tournament run ended in a 5-0 loss to top-seed Aquinas in the semifinals.

Tiplady tied for second on the roster in goals last year with six while Sarah Ammon tied for fourth with five. Broman topped the SHU squad with 11 assisrs while Tiplady was second with four.

SHU's primary goalie from last season, Caitlyn Harwood, is back in 2023 after going 7-3-3 with a 1.39 goals-against average and .750 save percentage.

The Saints have three games against 2022 NAIA Tournament teams; two of those are home games inside the conference against Madonna (Oct. 7) and Aquinas (Oct. 18). SHU also has a date with defending River States Conference champs, Indiana Kokomo, on the road on Sept. 8.