LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates women's soccer team opens their 2025 season at Husson Wednesday night at 7 p.m., and head coach Joe Vari wants the team to focus on what they control as they look to move up the NESCAC standings.

"A lot of this is just the players being competitors, and competing game to game," Vari said. "Our style isn't changing that much, but we want to ramp up the intensity. We believe in the team game. It's important for all 11 players to carry the load. The more aggressive and assertive we can be, the better."

Last year's version of the Bobcats suffered some heartbreaking losses, but this year the Bobcats are looking to flip those results this year.

"Some of those losses were just us not tracking people late on a set piece, or something like that," Vari said. "If we can turn those close losses into even a tie, that's going to help us tremendously in the standings."

Sophomore Isabelle Bernal (San Francisco, Calif.) was a breakout star last year as a rookie. She made ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 in her collegiate debut, and went on to score three goals, including one against rival Bowdoin. Bernal did suffer a season-ending injury, or her stats would have been even better. But she is working her way back and Vari believes she'll once again make an impact this season. 

"We'll get an update in the next week or two, but her progress has been really good," Vari said. "And then junior Nicole Tandetnitskiy (Newton, Mass.) is back playing for us coming off an injury and is doing a really, really great job. So kudos to Sports Medicine and our physical therapy staff, and also the amount of work the players have put in themselves." 

From a scoring perspective, Bates will lean heavily on senior forward Gabby Monaco (Pittsburgh, Pa.), who brings great speed as a multi-sport athlete who also competes in track and field. She's tallied four goals in her career to date and is always a threat on the offensive end. Sophomore Eleanor Martin (Oilville, Va.) is another scoring option, as she impressed with three goals during her rookie season a year ago.

"It has been kind of the blueprint for us to create goals by committee and I think that'll be the same," Vari said. "But I do think we'll rely pretty heavily there on Gabby as a senior, but I think a couple of our other younger players will step in and fill some of those roles for us." 

Junior midfielder Rachel Suh (Seattle) and sophomore midfielder Gwyn Jamison (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) give the Bobcats a strong presence to set up chances for the forwards, and both are more than capable of scoring goals themselves, as Suh proved last year with her game-winner against Trinity. Jamison also had a standout moment with her game-winning assist against Connecticut College.

Senior captain Tess Griffith (Londonderry, N.H.) anchors the Bates defense and she's joined as a captain this year by senior Samantha Bunar (Lynnfield, Mass.), who moves to defense due to a broken wrist preventing her from playing goalkeeper.

"Tess and Samantha bleed garnet for us and they've done a really, really great job of communicating and connecting with the group," Vari said. "They've done a really nice job of showing everybody what the standard is in this program."

Junior Sydney Litney (Schaumburg, Ill.) steps into the starting goalkeeper position after posting an impressive .909 save percentage in four games last year, finishing with a 1-0 record between the pipes. 

Despite the team dealing with a few injuries entering the season, Vari is enthusiastic about the direction of the program.

"With the addition of the lights, video board, and turf at Russell Street Field, the experience for the players continues to grow and gets better and better," Vari said. "It's a really great time to be a Bobcat."