The Lancaster Bible College women's basketball team kicks off its season Monday night, hosting Penn State Altoona. Though the Chargers return six players from last year's team, including seniors Nicole Karschner, Lacy McClaine and Vanessa Clemenson, the team has changed a lot since last February.

One of the biggest changes will be on the bench, where Head Coach Doug Helsel takes the reins from Bob Shannon who had coached the previous four seasons. Helsel, who was most recently an assistant for the Franklin & Marshall men's basketball team, takes over a team that has gone 15-37 the last two seasons. Joining him on the bench will be assistant coach Adam Surguine. Surguine has been a student assistant the previous two years, but takes over as the assistant this year.

"Some of the things we have changed and implemented the ladies have picked up right away, others things have taken a little bit longer," Surguine said.

One of the reasons some things have taken a little while to learn is the absence of some of the team from practice. Brittney Becker, Emily Lloyd and Lauren Heliger have been tied up with their fall sports' teams because of NCCAA Nationals and have yet to practice. They will dress for the home opener this evening, but whether or not they play remains to be seen.

"We have everyone back now and we will hope to get Becker, Lloyd and Heliger into the swing of things very quickly," Surguine said. "They are important to our success and with the schedule we play early on, we will need them."

The schedule Surguine speaks of is one of the toughest LBC has played in recent years. After tonight's tilt with Penn State Altoona, the Chargers face The College of Notre Dame [Md.], Cincinnati Christian and Kentucky Christian later this week. Cincinnati Christian, ranked annually in the top 10 of NCCAA Division I was 19-9 last season, while Kentucky Christian won its record 13th NCCAA Division II National Championship last season.

Helsel and Surguine are hoping the tough games at the beginning of the season will mature the younger players.

"Those tougher games will hopefully provide some of the necessary experience for the younger players, like Kate Farnham and Brooklyn Wilson, so that by Christmas Break, we are good to go for the second half," Surguine said. "If those games can make us a more mature team and make us a better team later in the season, that would be great."

Though the Chargers won just six games last season (6-19), they did win two of their last three games and began playing much better late in the season.

"We don't want to backslide," Surguine said. "We want to continue that momentum and come out every night, thinking we can win."

LBC only hosts two games prior to Christmas. The first is tonight against Penn State Altoona and the second is December 9 against Arcadia. Both games begin at 6:00 p.m.