You cannot be afraid of the unknown.

That is the message that coach Dan Muscatell is trying give the women’s basketball team as it prepares to battle it out in the Big Sky conference this year. The Hornets look to bounce back from a difficult 2005 season, a season where they finished 9-17 overall, 4-10 in the Big Sky conference.

But that was last year, and this year Muscatell looks to have his team headed in the right direction and on track to turn the green and gold into a formidable program in the Big Sky. He will do it with two familiar faces: senior captains Stephanie Cherry and Kim Sheehy.

“I just want to lead this young group by example, I want to show them that it’s going to take hard work everyday,” senior Kim Sheehy said about being a leader of this year’s team.

Cherry is coming off of a 2005-06 season where she stepped into a new role, the team’s playmaker. After spending the majority of her first two years as a shooting guard Cherry is now the team’s point guard, a position where she averaged 10.6 points and 2.6 assists per game.

“It was hard to make the transition because I’m a scorer, but I’m getting use to it and I want to lead this team,” Cherry said.

And her backcourt partner is none other than Sheehy, who had a career year last year, averaging 10.8 points per game. After the two captains, however, comes the unknown.

“Stephanie and Kim are a given to produce. They have proven themselves, and after that it’s a mix of eight or nine competing among themselves for minutes,” Muscatell said.

With no starting lineup set for the season, it will be an opportunity for players to define their own roles on the team.

“We will be looking to go 10 to 11 deep while we look to sort out roles,” Muscatell said. “There will probably be lots of changing going on in the lineup.”

The Hornets will look to define those roles early in the year.

“Everyone we have has their strong points,” Cherry said. “We will get help from everyone in their own way.”

Coach Muscatell will most likely turn to one of the Hornet’s more experienced players under the basket in Atty Boyer to fill one of the starting spots, with returning Becca Reams and Ashley Storms challenging for the other starting spots.

“Atty, Ashley and Becca have the most experience for us on the inside. We will look at them to help us inside,” Muscatell said.

Both the media and coaches’ polls have picked Sac State to finish eighth in the Big Sky, but those picks don’t mean anything to Muscatell.

“My goal is to finish in the top six in the conference and qualify for the (Big Sky) tournament. That’s the goal of the season for us, get to the Big Sky tournament. I don’t like to predict rankings, its just too hard to do,” Muscatell said.

“I think we can end up anywhere in the conference rankings, I don’t look at rankings, they don’t mean anything to me,” Sheehy said.

With all the unknown surrounding the team, Muscatell knows what it’s going to take to win and that is to control the tempo of every game.

“Bottom line, we need to control the tempo of every game. With us undersized, the tempo has to go our way.”

Aaron Boore can be reached at [email protected]