NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. - Now that the team is comfortable it's time that it gets over the hump. That's how you would describe the Westminster College women's basketball team as it enters the 2011-12 season. Last season it took a while for the Titans to get their offense to gel. Now, with five players returning who started at least 11 games including a sixth player who ended the season as a starter, Westminster anticipates improvements this year.

Westminster posted a 7-18 record in 2010-11 including a 2-14 mark for ninth place in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC). The Titans' 1,362 points (54.4 per game) were the fewest in the league.

"It's great to have younger players enter the season after getting experience last year," said 10th-year head coach Rosanne Scott. "Hopefully they will start the season with more confidence."

Freshmen or sophomore guards made a combined 55 starts last year, all of which in their first season as starters, but the Titans still had three players, including two in the front court, who were multiple-year starters. This unbalance is what Scott attributes to some of the team's struggles last year.

"Having a year where upperclassmen were playing with freshmen they weren't sure of each other," Scott said. "We needed that extra year for them to become more confident with each other and that confidence will help put more points on the board."

The Titans' frontcourt will be led by senior forward Emily Dolsak (McDonald, Ohio/McDonald) and junior forward Andi Ridge (North Tonawanda, N.Y./Starpoint). Dolsak is a three-year starter who ranked second on the team last year with 8.2 points and 6.1 rebounds. Ridge, a two-year starter, led the team with 6.5 rebounds per game while scoring 5.4 points per game.

Dolsak is one of four captains including Ridge, senior guard Emily Montone (Sharpsville, Pa./Sharpsville), and junior forward Katie Hughes (Boardman, Ohio/Cardinal Mooney).

Junior point guard Danielle Gilmore (Washington, Pa./Trinity) averaged 5.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game in her first year as a starter during her sophomore year in 2010-11.

Sophomore guards Hannah Shaffer (Apollo, Pa./Apollo-Ridge) and Courtney Zitt (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) combined to start 25 games last year as freshmen with Shaffer starting the first 14 games and Zitt starting the final 11 games.

Zitt averaged 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, but she really came on at the end of the season with a 13.5 scoring and 6.8 rebound average in the last six games.

Sophomore guard Gabby Holko (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Alvernia) started in place of injured senior Kaitlin McCarthy at the end of last year as Holko finished the year with five starts, 23 games and a 5.2 scoring average including four games with at least 10 points.

Westminster will also welcome back junior Jenn Cantella (Freedom, Pa./Freedom), who missed the entire 2010-11 season with an injury after averaging 6.1 points per game as a freshmen in 2009-10.

Westminster's seven wins last year were the fewest during Scott's nine years with the team, but Scott is capable of turning things around quickly. The last time the Titans lost at least 18 games in a season was in 2005-06, but the very next year Westminster went to the NCAA Division III tournament with a program-best 22-7 record.

Scott acknowledges that the challenge for this team is getting over the hump after some close losses last year.

"My biggest concern is getting them to be confident," Scott said. "After losing so many games last year it's going to be difficult to get them over the hump mentally and that's being able to realize that we could've won more games last year."