Photo courtesy of YSU Athletics / John Vogel Several players and coaches of Youngstown State women’s basketball team break a huddle during the first day of practice on Monday at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.

YOUNGSTOWN — There were a lot of familiar faces on the floor during the Youngstown State women’s basketball team’s first day of official preseason practices on Monday.

While the Penguin men have more new faces on the roster than returners, the women have maintained significant continuity with nine returning players heading into the upcoming 2025-26 season, which tips off Nov. 3 against Thiel.

“We’re in a unique situation,” head coach Melissa Jackson said. “We’ve got nine returners, so I think that speaks volumes about what we were able to do last year as far as laying a foundation. Those student-athletes really believe in our program. So that’s been wonderful to come into practice — whether it was summer or now official practice — and they know the drills. They know the drills, they know the standard and they know the expectations.”

Along with the returners, YSU added three newcomers during the offseason, including two transfers, sixth-year point guard Casey Santoro and junior forward Paulina Hernandez, and one freshman, guard Brooke Adkins.

However, the strength of this roster lies in its size, depth and experience in the post. Reigning Horizon League Freshman of the Year Sophia Gregory leads that group of forwards, which includes redshirt senior Faith Burch, Hernandez and redshirt freshmen Sarah Baker and Ashlynn Van Tassell, both of whom are back healthy after suffering season-ending injuries last year.

With that group leading the way, Jackson feels YSU’s offensive approach will be more centered around its post play than last year.

“I’m not going to shy away from the fact that I think we have some of the best post players in our league,” Jackson said. “We have a lot of them, and how we use them I think will be a little bit different than what we looked like last year. … It’s forced me to change a little bit of our style and what I’m maybe accustomed to, and that’s coaching. I’m going to feed the posts and pound it inside until somebody stops us.”

YSU’s identity last year was based around its defense. The Penguins finished fifth in the Horizon League in scoring defense, giving up 62.8 points per game.

Jackson wants those numbers to be even better this year.

“I think we’re a little bit longer in some areas. I think we have some pressure on the wing that maybe we haven’t had in the past. (Plus), some better one-on-one on-ball defenders, especially at the point guard position,” Jackson said. “I think being top-five last year was solid for us. But we have some bigger goals this year. We want to be top-three in that category.

“We always start with our man-to-man concepts. We’re a little bit farther ahead than we were last year in some of those areas. Then I think we’ll put our zones in much sooner than we did last year.”

Coming out of summer, Jackson likes where the Penguins are in terms of their growth, development and preparation for the upcoming season.

While last year they faced a lot of unknowns with the new coaching staff and almost a whole new roster of freshmen and transfers, Jackson said she feels they’re further ahead of where they were at this time last year, especially with a full offseason of work.

“There’s just a sense of comfortability amongst our group,” she said. “We’re right where we need to be in some other areas. So I’m really happy with where we’re at. But we’ve still got a long way to go and still a lot of work.”