Coming off of last season’s fourth-place conference finish and a berth in the GNAC tournament, the Wildcats women’s soccer team has stumbled out of the gates with two losses to start their conference play.

The team has all but two players returning from last year’s playoff squad, which was highlighted by 2014 GNAC Freshman of the Year, sophomore midfielder Mackenzie Nolte.

The team did lose a lot of production with the graduation of their second leading scorer and assist leader Hadli Farrand and goalkeeper Kayla Lipston.

“I think we’re a little incomplete,” head coach Michael Farrand said. “I think the jury is still out a little bit about who we are. We certainly have shown times when we are very good. Nobody within our conference has had a tougher preseason schedule.”

Not only was the preseason schedule tough, but the team will also start conference games with four out of five games on the road.

Luckily for the group of returning girls, this isn’t the first time they have faced this adversity.

“We miss Hadli. We miss Kayla in goal,” Farrand said. “Those are big holes to fill, but we’re good enough team where we should just keep going forward.”

Last year, the team led off their first nine games with a 2-7 record, before rallying late to go 6-1-3 down the stretch to finish .500 on the season.

“We’re working really hard at practice,” Nolte said. “We’ve just got to keep pressing and have more confidence.”

Nolte lead the team in scoring last year, netting eight goals and dishing out three assists.

Coach Farrand noted that in the team’s first conference game against Concordia, Nolte was constantly double-teamed.

Nolte has yet to score this year, but has already matched her total for assists last year and leads the team in that category.

“She’s gotten to the goal a number of times and gotten good looks,” Farrand said. “I think once she finally scores one it will take the pressure off her.”

The Wildcats have replaced the graduated Lipston with fifth-year senior Amanda White, who is returning to the team after a year off.

“The first few days of preseason were tough,” White said. “But it’s good now to get back in the groove.”

White hasn’t had a soft landing as the Wildcats have allowed the second-most shots on goal for GNAC teams this season. However, White recorded her first shutout since returning while playing against Cal State University-Monterey Bay on Sept. 11.

“To have her comeback and try and help us this way shows to the quality of woman she is,” Farrand said.

However, the team doesn’t have much time left to find their groove. They take on rival and perennial powerhouse Western on Oct. 8 on the road.

Before that, the Wildcats will have two games to find their dynamic with their conference home-opener, Oct. 1 against Northwest Nazarene followed by a road game, Oct. 3 at Western Oregon.

The team knows that they need to focus on executing their game plan in the upcoming matches.

“We’re a passing team,” Nolte said. “We‘re not very direct, so we need to play our game.”

Coach Farrand believes there is the leadership to help get the team where it needs to be in co-captains senior midfielder Reilly Reitz and junior defender Allie Bohnett.

The key for another turn around will be regaining the confidence they had in a season-saving stretch-run a year ago.

“I think it’s tough coming into conference play after a loss,” White said. “But it’s definitely all about what you do after those losses, so I think we just need to have confidence.”