A promising season seems to be on its way for the Ashland women’s soccer team despite only returning three upper classmen.

Even in the first days of their preseason, Coach Dan Krispinsky could tell the team had a different energy.

“Just after our first practice I was already encouraged by the energy and the play,” said Krispinsky. “Right now as a whole, our team is at a level that we expect it to be at.”

Comparing this year’s season to last, the team has more depth with the heavy numbers in the sophomore starters who have had an entire season of play under their belt.

“There is a lot more hype this year,” said sophomore goalie Maddie Diestel. “The coaches seemed positive and it is definitely more exciting and thrilling this year.”

Returning this season is Senior Krista Lewis and juniors Sam Birchall and Jess Brown who are expected to lead the team this season.

“We are expecting big things from them and hoping they lead the team on and off of the court,” said Krispinsky. “Krista is our senior and she had another great year last year and we are really relying on her and her experience.”

Also returning this season is sophomore Morgan Bittengle who led the league in goals last year.

Just like last season, women’s soccer has a large number of incoming freshmen and the coaching staff is hoping this will allow the team to grow from the bottom up and bring a large amount of strength to the program.

“The incoming players are really good and seem to be great assets to the program,” said sophomore Carson Janssen. “I think that we are starting at a very high level and it really can only get better from here.”

It is always difficult as a freshman coming into a college athletic program, although most seem to be adjusting well and buying into the program.

“It is very intesnse,” said freshman Lauren Taylor. “We are with players who want to take their play to the next level and that makes us want to becoming better players.”

Every team has the same goal of winning their conference and making it to the NCAA tournament, and this soccer team is no different, especially coming off a strong 2014 season.

“We had a nice year last year and of course we want to improve on that,” said Krispinsky. “We want to win a GLIAC championship and make it to the NCAA tournament. Those are high goals, but those are things that I think we can reach this year.”

The team was picked fifth in the GLIAC poll behind Grand Valley State, Ohio Dominican, Saginaw Valley and Michigan Tech.

Their first game is Sept. 4 at West Liberty University in Wheeling, West Virginia and their first home game is Sept. 13 against University of Maine at Fort Kent.