The Oswego State women's hockey team will enter the 2015-16 season in the receiving votes section of the D3hockey.com preseason poll. Oswego earned eight votes, placing them just outside the site's weekly Top 10 poll at No. 11.
On Friday, the Lakers will open its campaign with a 7 p.m. home game against New England College followed by another home affair against Castleton University at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
The Lakers return all but three players from its 2014-15 squad, which appeared in the national rankings multiple times. Every Oswego player that had double-figure points last year is back in green and gold for 2015-16, including Laker point-leader Olivia Ellis (12-15-27). She will be helped on offense by the second and third-highest point getters from the previous year, junior Brianna Rice (12-8-20) and sophomore classmate Andrea Noss (5-13-8).
Senior Tori Trovato will captain the Lakers with her assistants Lizzy Marks and Ashley Lyman. The captain will look to continue stellar goaltending play by Oswego, following the footsteps of the program's first All-American in now-graduated netminder Bridget Smith.
Fellow ECAC Women's West foes nabbed the top two spots in the rankings, with Plattsburgh as the unanimous No. 1 while Elmira College is close on the Cardinals' heels, just 32 points back.
