The St. Bede girls basketball team will have a small and young roster this season, but coach Tom Ptak expects a group of three experienced seniors to lead the way in Lili McClain, Savannah Bray and Ava Balestri.

“Even though we are young, we feel our seniors can lead us to another successfull season and make us proud,” Ptak said.

McClain is back for her third season as a starter. She started on the Bruins’ Class 1A third-place team in 2023-24.

Last season she was St. Bede’s go-to scorer, averaging 12.6 points, 5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.

“Lili has an all-around very good game,” Ptak said. “I am looking for her to step up this year and look to score more. We have given her the green light and I hope she takes advantage of that,”

Bray also was a contributor on St. Bede’s state team and last year averaged 10.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, while Balestri contributed 2.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game last winter.

“We look for Savannah to improve her numbers to a double-double and be a leader on the floor,” Ptak said. “Ava Balestri does all the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Very coachable, works hard and has a very nice mid-range jump shot.”

Juniors Ashlyn Heersink and Alaina Schultz and sophomore Parker McClain all saw varsity action last season.

Sophomore Hanna Waszkowiak is expected to contribute as well.

“She spent some time over the summer working on her game and it shows,” Ptak said.

Freshmen Hannah Hieberger, Tula Rue and Kami Nauman will play on the varsity.

“We have three freshmen on the roster who have looked good in practice and will contribute this year,” Ptak said.

Ptak said the Bruins are looking to improve on defense after allowing 42.7 points per game last season.

“One of our focuses is playing better defense, so we’ve been spending a lot of time in practice getting the concept down.”

The Bruins finished 20-13 overall and 9-5 in the Tri-County Conference last season.

“We look to be in contention for the conference title and be a better team at the end of the year than at the beginning,” Ptak said.