The Chico State women's soccer program has featured plenty of talent over the years, but perhaps no team has boasted this much returning firepower in Head Coach Kim Sutton's 16 seasons leading the Wildcats.
 
The Wildcats scored 32 goals last season. Returners combined for 28 of them. They dished out 34 assists last season. Returners combined for 30.
 
Now they're ready to see how that translates in 2016. The Wildcats open the season Thursday at 3 p.m. at California Baptist. They will play at Azusa Pacific Saturday at 7 p.m. before returning to Chico for their home opener the following Wednesday. That match against Seattle Pacific will begin a stretch of three home dates for the Wildcats in five nights.
 
The Wildcats finished 12-5-2 last season, including 8-3-1 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, which netted them a second-place finish. Their season ended abruptly, however, with a loss in the CCAA Championship Tournament semifinals, when they did not receive an at-large berth in the NCAA Championship Tournament.
 
Fifteen players return from that team, including eight starters: Shelby Lanksbury, Erin Woods, Devon Morones, Katie Brown, Emily Shleppey, Lindsey Dias, Pooja Patel, and Brooke Coelho. Their plan is to get into the NCAAs this time around.
 
"They have big goals," said Wildcats Head Coach Kim Sutton. "It's been a while since we made the NCAAs. We've been right there for a few years. They're certainly not overlooking conference, but they really want to get to the NCAAs."
 
To get there, Patel and Dias will likely need to lead the way.
 
Patel was last season's CCAA Offensive Player of the Year and a Second Team All-American. She punished opposing defenses last season, piling up nine goals and eight assists.
 
This season, Sutton sees a shift in the chemistry between Patel and her teammates that could pay big dividends.
 
"It takes time to develop relationships to the point you understand instinctually what a player up top is going to do," said Sutton. "Pooja's mind works at such a high level on the soccer field that she and her teammates are still learning to maximize that. But the connections are getting stronger every day."
 
Dias was likely Patel's biggest competition for the CCAA's top offensive award. She racked up nine goals – including four game-winners – and seven assists.
 
"Lindsey gets better and better all the time," said Sutton. "She does more damage than people know because she's not in that attacking role. She's a really great player."
 
They both received First Team All-CCAA and First Team All-West Region honors. Dias also earned a spot on the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Scholar All-West Region Team.
 
Woods, the CCAA's Newcomer of the Year, was an honorable mention All-CCAA defender and chipped in two goals and three assists.
 
Lanksbury (three goals, four assists) and Carlie Reader (three goals and six assists as a true freshman) give the Wildcats two more explosive scorers.
 
"It's fantastic to have so many weapons back for another year, and they are only getting better," said Sutton. "We have lots of great options if somebody draws too much of the defense's attention. Shelby has a knack for scoring big, memorable goals. Carlie is an explosive, powerful player. She's even more dangerous now because she's communicating with and combining with her teammates."
 
Sutton expects freshmen Brielynn Tovani, Sarah Yang and Olivia Williams to learn from the veteran strikers and possibly even make a big contribution to the team this season.
 
Joining Dias in the midfield is sophomore Jamie Ikeda, who started three of the final four matches of last season as a true freshman.
 
Sutton is excited for Courtney Sharrah, who has worked hard to recover from an injury and will be asked to contribute big minutes in the midfield this season.
 
True freshmen Emily Curry – a likely starter – and René Weiler have also impressed.
 
Sophomore goalkeeper Caitlyn Duval will be the team's last line of defense. She impressed in limited minutes last season as a freshman, posting a clean sheet in her only start. She spent the summer in net for the California Storm of the Women's Premier Soccer League and Sutton likes what that experience produced. "She came in very fit and strong," said Sutton. "She grew up and matured and we are really confident in her."
 
Veterans Coelho, Woods, Morones, Shleppey and Brown give the Wildcats depth and experience on the back line. Sophomore Korie Bozart and true freshman Kasey Cruz will be a big part of that unit's future.
 
Those two, along with the team's other 23 freshmen and sophomores, will learn from a strong group of leaders.
 
Senior Amanda Simonich leads the goalkeepers, while Brown, Lanksbury, Shleppey and Dias give the team four starters who have been in the program for four years.
 
"There are certainly a lot of really strong veterans on the team. All five of them display outstanding traits that you want out of your leaders," said Sutton. "That's a really fun and necessary piece to success."
 
Brown, Lanksbury, Shleppey and Dias also set the tone in the classroom. They made up half of the team's eight women who earned CCAA All-Academic honors last fall. That helped the team win the University Foundation Board of Governors Award For Academic Excellence for the third straight year. The award is presented to the men's team and women's team that have achieved the highest level of academic success during the year.
 
"They have raised the bar for the entire program," said Sutton. "They have made studying just the thing we do. It definitely has flooded into the rest of the team. It's a standard they're all striving for now. They just keep raising the bar."