ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's basketball team is set to open up its 2019-20 season this Friday night at 7 p.m. against The College of New Jersey's Lions in Ewing, N.J.
 
Last season was a successful one for the Bombers. Ithaca finished the regular-season 25-6 with a 15-3 record in the Liberty League. The team went on to win the Liberty League Championship against the Rochester Institute of Technology in overtime and received an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. This was the 15^th NCAA appearance in program history for the Bombers.
 
Ithaca won the first three rounds of the tournament, defeating SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Saint Joseph's College (Maine) and DeSales University. The team was then eliminated after being defeated 87-61 in the Elite Eight round by Bowdoin College, only the second time in program history IC had made in that far in the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Bombers lost five players to graduation over the offseason – Annie Giannone, Allie Tunick, Meghan Pickell, Meghan Mazzella and Sara Jackson. Giannone, Tunick and Pickell acted as starters for IC last season while Mazzella and Jackson received substantial playing time off the bench.
 
This season, the Bombers were picked to finish first in the Liberty League. Ithaca is also ranked No. 22 by D3hoops Top 25 preseason poll.
 
Now in his 20^th season, Head Coach Dan Raymond and his staff have solidified a roster of 16 players. 
 
Seniors Cassidy O'Malley, KellyAnne O'Reilly and junior Grace Cannon will return this season as key players for Ithaca. Megan Yawman will also see significant time as point guard, after playing back up behind Giannone last season.
 
O'Malley and Cannon have taken on more of a leadership role this season as the only returning starters on the team.
 
"We have a good number of players returning from last year who played, but only Grace and Cassidy started, so everybody else is assuming a new role," said Raymond. "We are really relying on Grace and Cassidy to help everybody settle into those new roles that they are going to be playing. We are relying on them to do more than just play basketball, to be the great teammates that we need them to be and they are doing an outstanding job."
 
O'Malley was recently named a preseason All-American by D3Hoops.com. Last season, O'Malley was a significant contributor for the Bombers, earning Earned All-Liberty League First Team and D3hoops.com All-East region first team honors while garnering an All-ECAC honorable mention. She finished the season with 466 points, 182 rebounds and 73 assists.
 
O'Reilly played a critical role in her first year as a Bomber last season after transferring from Manhattan College. She finished her first season with 237 points, 96 rebounds, 32 assists and 25 steals in 539 minutes of play.
 
Cannon appeared in 31 games and made 30 starts for the Bombers last season, finishing the season with 229, 163 rebounds, 34 steals and 29 blocks. For her efforts, she received an All-Liberty League Honorable Mention. Yawman appeared in 30 games, scoring 90 points and recording 44 assists, 32 rebounds and 14 steals.
 
Junior Abbi Field and sophomores Alex Heuwetter, Melissa Buxton, Lindsey Abertelli, Alyssa Spady and Cara Volpe are also returning for the Bombers this season.
 
Four new first-years have been added to the roster this season – Erin Hayes, Natalie Smith, Emily Dorn and Camryn Coffey.
 
The coaching staff of Raymond and Mary Kate Tierney '14 have been pleased with the way the first-years are assimilating into the team and look forward to seeing the class in action during the season.
 
"We are excited about the future when we watch them play," said Raymond. "The message we have given to those first-year players is we don't see them, after a month, as being first-year players anymore. They are just basketball players at Ithaca College. It is the consistency that they are trying to figure out right now as they adapt and adjust to a whole new environment that they are playing in."
 
As preseason has gone on, the first-years have started to set themselves apart. Dorn – a forward – has been showing a lot of promise and Raymond expects her to be a contributor in her first year on South Hill.
 
Raymond has also been pleasantly surprised with Smith, who was not a point guard during the recruiting process, but has worked in the off-season to build up those skills and will be able to assume some point guard responsibilities this season.
 
Ithaca had two scrimmages since beginning practice in October. The Bombers took on Hartwick first before hosting Scranton last Saturday. As is often the case, a lot was learned during the scrimmages, both by the coaching staff and the players.
 
"Hartwick was exactly what we expected it to be, it was eye-opening in a few ways," said Raymond. "I think we learned a lot and not just as a coaching staff, but our players too. They figured out that even though we may be very talented, that is not enough and they have to work really hard in order to be successful on the court."
 
Raymond saw a significant improvement in the Bombers play against Scranton.
 
"The difference between the Hartwick scrimmage and the Scranton scrimmage was night and day," said Raymond. "Our players came prepared to play, played hard, and played with high energy and high intensity throughout the scrimmage. That was great for us to see. Any time that you are playing an outside opponent, it provides us with opportunities to evaluate, assess and learn."
 
The Bombers will look to implement everything from the preseason as they take on TCNJ in the season-opener tomorrow evening. IC will then return home on Tuesday to host Cortland before heading to the Amherst tournament next weekend to take on Amherst and Babson.
 
"There is still a lot of work for us to do as a team and as a coaching staff – sorting and figuring things out – so until we start playing on a regular basis, it is more questions than answers," said Raymond. "We are looking to answer as least a couple of questions at TCNJ."