University of St. Francis returns four starters from a 19-13 team that reached the championship game of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament a year ago.

That team narrowly missed earning an at large berth in the NAIA Championship Tournament but lacked the signature victory over a ranked team that may have given it the necessary boost in the national poll that would have helped it secure a bid.

USF hopes that the returning experience will help it take that next step - both in the CCAC and nationally - and make the Saints a more nationally recognized program.

The Saints finished second in both the regular season and in the CCAC tournament to league champion Saint Xavier. USF played the Cougars four times in 2008-09 - once in the finale of the SXU Christmas Tournament, twice in CCAC regular season play and once again in the CCAC tourney title game - and lost all four meetings.

Heading the list of returning starters is senior guard/forward Jacqie Storm who led the team in scoring for the third straight season with an average of 13.5 points per game. Storm was also a first-team All-CCAC pick for the third straight year.

Other returning starters include senior forward Kellie Fazio and senior point guard Katie Carls who both captured honorable mention All-CCAC accolades as juniors. The fourth returning starter is senior forward/center Kaci Baird who started for the Saints a year ago after transferring in from NCAA Division II Lewis University.

Senior guard Anna Sears, sophomore center Jen Andes, junior transfer guard Bianca King and freshman forward Marissa Draper will likely be the top players off the bench. Sears will most likely join the other four returning seniors in the starting lineup. She has been one of the Saints' best closing players in recent years and it was her last-second jumper that gave USF its big road win at Olivet Nazarene last season. Andes was USF's second-highest scorer off the bench in 2008-09 with an average of 7.7 points per contest. King comes to St. Francis from NCAA Division II Quincy University, while Draper prepped at nearby Joliet Township High School.

Other returnees include junior forward Tori Albrecht and sophomore guard/forwards Michelle Karr and Julie Schiffler. Albrecht, who with King are the only juniors on the 15-player roster, played in 11 games as a sophomore and averaged just under two points per outing. Karr gives the Saints a long-distance shooting threat off the bench. She appeared in 18 games as a frosh and made 12 3-point field goals on the season. Schiffler played in 12 games and gives USF a very athletic player off the bench that can play either the shooting guard or small forward position.

Rounding out the squad are senior forward Kara Decker, freshman forward Molly Bardson from Ottawa and first-year guards Kailey Hunter and Sarah Fencl. Decker played volleyball during her first three years at St. Francis and will play basketball this season for the first time since helping lead Spring Valley Hall to the Elite Eight of the Illinois Class A state tournament as a senior in high school. Bardson gives the Saints some size and a nice outside shooting touch off the bench. Hunter, younger sister of the graduated Brittani Hunter who concluded her four-year career at USF last season, did not play basketball last year while attending University of Illinois-Chicago. Fencl was one of the Chicago area's top scorers as a senior prep last year at Tinley Park High School.

One major change to the Saints program occurred very early in the season following the Saints' sixth game of the year at the Trinity International tournament. Second-year head coach Jeff Thompson stepped down from his coaching position for family reasons. Assistant coach Ryan Haun, who joined the women's program a year ago when Thompson made the move from assistant coach to head coach, took over the reins of the Saints prior to USF's home game on Nov. 24 vs. Holy Cross College. Thompson completed his one-plus seasons as USF's head coach with a 21-18 record.