A team whose previous season ended in heartbreak will begin a new season with plenty of hope and no small amount of hype.
The UAA women's basketball team, which was ranked No. 1 at the end of the 2014-15 regular season only to suffer a devastating home-court loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, will begin the upcoming season ranked ninth in the nation.
That's the word from the Women's Division II Bulletin, which in its preview edition bestowed that ranking on the Seawolves.
Also gaining preseason love were two of UAA's top players.
Megan Mullings, a senior forward, was named to the Bulletin's Super 16 preseason All-America team. And Kiki Robertson, a junior guard, was one of 26 players nationwide to earn honorable mention.
The preseason hype is no surprise. Mullings and Robertson are coming off stellar seasons, and the Seawolves look like they could once again dominate.
UAA returns seven players from last season's 29-2 team, whose season came to a shocking end when Point Loma snapped UAA's 17-game winning streak, 64-63 on the first day of the West Region tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center.
The Seawolves added two Division I transfers during the offseason, including Keiahnna Engel, a Dimond High graduate who left Boise State to play her senior season at home.
Mullings is one of 16 players nationwide, and one of two from the West Region, named to the Super 16 team.
The 6-footer from Glendale, Arizona, is coming off a spectacular season in which she averaged 13.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks and shot a school-record 60.4 percent from the field. She collected numerous postseason awards, including All-America honorable mention.
Robertson is a 5-foot-7 point guard who was the only player in Division II to rank in the top 10 in both assists (6.0 per game, No. 8 in the nation) and steals (3.3 per game, No. 8 in the nation). She was named the Defensive Player of the Year in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and MVP of the GNAC tournament.
The Seawolves open the season in California with three games in the CCA Division II Tip-Off Classic, Oct. 30-Nov. 1.