Junior forward Kylie Kuhns is back as the Sacramento State women’s basketball team looks to outrun the competition in the Big Sky Conference this season.

The team finished the 2010-11 season 4-25 overall and 1-15 in conference play.

This was a step back from the 2009-10 season when the team finished 14-15 and 10-7 in conference and entered the Big Sky Tournament as the No. 3 seed.

The Hornets have two returning starters from last year, Kuhns and center Natasha Torgersen.

Last year, Kuhns led the team in several statistical categories, including points (15.9 per game), field-goal percentage (49.7 percent), steals, minutes, free-throw attempts, made free-throws and rebounding. On a team that struggled all season to get rebounds, Kuhns led the Big Sky and was 12th in the NCAA with 11.1 per game.

Kuhns said the team’s keys to success this year include working hard and being in shape.

“In past years, if we (gave) a full commitment, we (were) successful,” Kuhns said, “and when our team doesn’t we’re not successful. So we need a full commitment from everybody.”

The Hornets use head coach Jamie Craighead’s full-court press style of play, which Craighead said most players are not accustomed to at the NCAA level.

“It’s something we adopted a couple of years ago, but with young kids, we’re kind of in the beginning stages again with it,” Craighead said.

One of the new players, guard Fantasia Hilliard, comes to Sac State from Sacramento High School, where she was named Metro Conference Player of the Year her senior year and led the team to a 28-6 record and 14-0 league record.

Sophomore forward Sadie Clements said the team needs to buy into the system.

“(The system) is a fast-paced running team, always pressing, always running and doing something, so everyone on the team always has to be totally bought into that,” Clements said.

Junior forward Mallorie Franco played in all 29 games last year as the team’s sixth woman. She ranked 10th in the conference and second on the team in offensive rebounds with 21 games coming off the bench and eight starts.

“We just want to run the other teams into the ground,” Franco said. “We just want to make them so tired, us being able to keep going and pushing through.”

Forward Emily Christensen has returned to the team healthy for her senior year. Last season, she injured her knee in the team’s first game against the University of Pacific and sat out the rest of the year. As a sophomore, she was team’s second-leading scorer and earned honorable mention on the All-Big Sky team.

“Effort is a very big factor,” Christensen said. “If we don’t put forth a good effort, the system won’t work out. Our controlled chaos will flounder if our effort is not there.”

Torgerson said communication and working hard in practice are important for success.

“Because with the system we run, we get tired some days,” Torgerson said. “So some days, we’ll be really quiet in the gym when we need to be extra loud to pump each other up.”

Torgerson, a 6-foot-2 center, was second in the Big Sky in blocks last season and holds the seventh all-time highest single-season block total in school history.

“The newcomers because they don’t know our system, they kind of put themselves down sometimes,” Torgerson said. “So for us older ones to pick them up, keep the communication going, I think will help a lot with us to understand everything, what’s going on in the court.”

The Hornets will host an exhibition game against Dominican University of California on Monday before their home opener Nov. 11 against CSU Fullerton.

Katie McMillin can be reached at [email protected].