The Saints hope All-GNAC 2nd team and freshman-of-the-year midfielder Ashley Richardson can help them find more offense.

Are you ready for some football?

The fall sports season gets underway today when the Saint Martin’s women’s soccer team takes on the Trinity Western Spartans of Langley, British Columbia in a preseason scrimmage at what promises to be a hot SMU Soccer Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 PM.

The Saints return 18 players from last season including ten starters. Despite having the most returning players in the GNAC, the Saints were picked to finish 7th out of eight teams in the preseason poll, which might not be surprising when you consider the Saints went 4-12-2 and only scored ten goals last season en route to a 6th place finish.

The Saints do return players that scored eight of their ten goals last season. Ashley Richardson, Sasha Dini and Hanna Massee scored two goals apiece and Olympia High School graduate Sammi Thompson returns for her junior season after scoring once in her sophomore year. Richardson, Dini, Massee and defender Molly Campbell were all named to the all-GNAC team in 2011 and Richardson was named conference freshman-of-the-year.

Seattle Pacific was the unanimous pick to win the GNAC again this season. The Falcons have won or shared the GNAC title in eight of the last ten seasons.

To read the full preseason preview release from the GNAC, click here.