Blame last year on the injuries, but credit the Carroll College women's basketball team's No. 23 NAIA preseason ranking to some well-deserved faith in seventh-year head coach Shawn Nelson.

A laundry list of Saints fell to injuries and illness in the 2008-09 season, as the team finished just 15-15 overall and 5-9 in the Frontier Conference.

The lackluster finish, including nine losses in the final 12 games, broke Nelson's previously unblemished streak of taking his team to the NAIA National Tournament - the first five appearances in the program's history.

"The whole year we battled injury after injury, illness after illness," Nelson said. "We never really put our team on the floor."

Carroll's long road to a fifth-place Frontier finish began just before their first exhibition tip-off.

That's when starting junior center Hannah Heidenreich went up for a pregame jumper and fell to the ground with an ACL tear that would sideline her for the season.

"I just went to the top of the key and shot and I thought somebody threw a ball at my leg, but I was all alone," Heidenreich said. "So many girls were out. It was definitely my hardest year at Carroll playing basketball - or not playing basketball, I guess."

Both Nelson and Heidenreich, now a reserve senior post, are hoping for a better result when the Saints host nonconference foe Simpson University (Redding, Calif.) today at 6 p.m. at the P.E. Center in their season opener.

The Saints were forced to insert nine of their returning 12 players into starting lineups a year ago, but senior shooting guard Elly Bruursema will be the only familiar face starting tonight.

Bruursema, also the team's only first-team All-Frontier player last year, led the conference in scoring at 18.1 points per game.

With three transfers inserted into a newly-healthy lineup, though, Bruursema is just fine with a more balanced Saints attack this season.

"I don't know if I'll lead the conference in scoring again. That's not the goal ... at all," Bruursema said. "Whatever it takes to get a couple more wins - or 15 more wins - is great."

Bruursema cited the emergence of those transfers - point guard Alex Dunn, power forward Jeni Guertin and small forward Cassie Scheffelmaier - as a calming influence on the entire roster.

"We got a couple more scorers and that's really going to help," Bruursema said. "It's really going to take a lot of pressure off a lot of girls."

Dunn, a junior transfer from Otero Junior College (La Junta, Colo.), is anticipated to have the most immediate effect by Nelson.

"She can do everything from the point guard position," Nelson said. "We've never had a player like that and it's exciting for us. We've always had a point guard we converted from shooting guard, but to have a true point will allow us to do a lot of things."

Nelson expects the speedy Dunn, and the rest of the current roster, to allow his team to return to their run 'n' gun style from years past.

Guertin, a 6-foot-1 sophomore forward, transferred from Division I Idaho State where she played in 17 games, averaging 1.5 points and 1.8 rebounds.

Scheffelmaier, a junior, transferred from Umpqua Community College (Roseburg, Ore).

She displayed her scoring ability with a 50-point outburst for UCC last season.

Junior center Sara Meyer, who played in reserve last season, will start in the middle.

Second team All-Frontier sophomore guard Alysha Green is expected to be the team's sixth-man.

Heidenreich and Nikki Mills, both seniors and starters from the past two seasons, will provide depth in the frontcourt.

Sophomore Jill Jagelski will back up Dunn at the point.

Freshman and Capital High graduate Kelsi Brekke is expected to join senior Nicole Leibach in relief on the wing.

Trent Makela: 447-4085 or trent.makela@helenair.com