Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team will play host to local foe Bard on Wednesday night in both team's 2017-18 season opener. Tip-Off with the Raptors is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Kaplan Center.
 
A Look At The Knights: Mount Saint Mary is coming off a 2016-17 season that saw it post a 19-6 overall record and a 15-3 mark in Skyline Conference play. The Knights won their first seven games a season ago, matching the program's best ever start to a season.
 
Mount Saint Mary returns a pair of All-Conference selections from a season ago in Jessica Rini (Seaford, N.Y.) and Kayla Cleare (West Hempstead, N.Y.) as well as the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year in Michael Coppolino.
 
The Knights lost only a pair of players from last season's 19-win squad, returning 86-percent of its scoring and 83-percent of its rebounding.
 
Backcourt: The Knights return five players in the backcourt from last season, including seniors Janae Graham (Orange, Conn.) and Dorothy Tighe (Walden, N.Y.), junior Maite Gritsko (Milford, Conn.) and sophomores Jordyn Hellpap (Hackensack, N.J.) and Lyndsay Pace (Cranford, N.J.).
 
Graham averaged 3.5 points per game as a junior to go along with 10 three-pointers and 38 assists, while Tighe appeared in 18 games in her first season with the Knights.
 
Gritsko was the only player to start all 25 games a season ago and led the Knights with 49 assists to along with 21 steals. She contributed 4.1 points per game and just over four rebounds per outing for the Mount.
 
In their first season with the Mount, Hellpap and Pace made an immediate impact. Hellpap led the Knights with 34 three-pointers and averaged just shy of seven points per game, while Pace rounded out the year starting nine games and handing out 36 assists, hitting 13 triples and chipping in nearly four points per game.
 
Coppolino welcomes three players to the position group for the 2017-18 season in Katie Smith (Goshen, N.Y.), Erin McCauley (Levittown, N.Y.) and Gabriella Rafaniello (Brooklyn, N.Y.). Smith was a 1,000-point scorer at Goshen Central and was a two-time Top-50 player in Section IX pick, while McCauley was a two-time All-Conference player at Division Avenue High School. Rafaniello was a Brooklyn/Queens GCHAA Second Team All-Star while playing at Bishop Kearny.
 
Frontcourt: The frontcourt is headlined by Rini, a First Team All-Conference selection a season ago, and Cleare who was tabbed Second Team All-League as a sophomore. The group also welcomes back senior Bridget Kelly (Farmington, Conn.) as well as sophomores Elizabeth Limonta (Stewart Manor, N.Y.) and Kassidy Hallum (Lake Grove, N.Y.).
 
Rini led the Mount in scoring a season ago with just over 11 points per game, shooting 43.6-percent from the floor and 76.3-percent from the free-throw line. She chipped in 7.4 rebounds per outing and posted 17 blocked shots as a junior.
 
Cleare shot nearly 50-percent from the floor last season and averaged a double-double, pouring in 10.6 points per game and hauling in just over 10 boards per contest. She led the team in rebounding average and blocks with 32.
 
Kelly led the team in steals as a junior with 38 and was good for nearly seven points and five rebounds per game while shooting 77.1-percent from the free-throw line. Limonta shot 67.1-percent from the floor in 17 games played and averaged 6.7 points and 6.4 rebounds to go along with eight blocks. Hallum appeared in 24 games for the Knights and canned nine three-point field goals.
 
Newcomer Morina Bojka (Prospect, Conn.) will look to make big contributions from the start of her rookie campaign after being named a two-time Most Valuable Player while staring at Woodland Regional High School.
 
Strong Starts: The Knights have won the season opener in each of the last two seasons and went on to match the best start to a season in program history with seven straight victories to open the 2016-17 year.
 
Preseason Prognostications: The Knights have been picked to finish second in the Skyline Conference Preseason Poll, garnering 68 points and a first place vote. Old Westbury sits atop the rankings, four points clear of the Mount, with Farmingdale State, College of Mount Saint Vincent and USMMA rounding out the top five.
 
The Schedule: After opening at home on Wednesday against Bard, the Knights will hit the road for three straight games, including two at the Emerson Tip-Off Tournament, before returning home to open Skyline Conference play against St. Joseph's-L.I. on November 28. The Knights will play 12 homes game this season, including a season-long three game home stand from January 22-30.
 
What's Next: The Knights travel to Boston on the weekend to take on Ave Maria and Middlebury as part of the Emerson Tip-Off Tournament. The Knights will open play against Ave Maria at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, please note the time change, and will close the tournament against Middlebury at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.