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SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Getting ready for the 2015-16 regular season, Santa Clara women's basketball plays its first of two exhibition games Friday at 6 p.m. vs. Notre Dame de Namur at Leavey Center.

Last year, Santa Clara shot 39.2 percent (694 of 1769) from the floor and 29.9 percent (121 of 405) from three while shooting 71.4 percent (396 of 555) from the free-throw line. The Broncos averaged 40.4 rebounds per game, 13.3 assists pg, 7.0 steals pg and 3.8 blocks pg.

Santa Clara (11-18, 5-13 WCC) will be without 46.1 points per game (70.1%) from last year's team due to graduation or injury. The Broncos top returning scorer and rebounder is Marie Bertholdt whole averaged 9.7 ppg and 7.3 rpg last season. She was second on the team with 25 blocks and started all 29 games. Taylor Berry scored 4.9 ppg and grabbed 4.1 rpg while chipping in 19 steals. Morgan McGwire scored 4.8 ppg to go with 5.1 rpg.

"We are such a young and inexperienced team right now that we are really working to solidify our identity as a ball club," said Santa Clara head coach JR Payne. "Heading into the exhibition games, we are completely focused on execution, discipline and playing hard. That will be our focus early on."

Despite losing so much production from a season ago, Santa Clara welcomes in seven new players in the form of four freshmen and three transfers. The freshmen are Savanna Hanson, Nicole Vander Helm, Dru Toleafoa, and Andraya Flor. The transfers are Devin Hudson (Long Beach State), Lori Parkinson (Southern Utah), and Kyla Martin (East Los Angles College).

"Our new players are fitting in great," said Payne. "We have a great group of returners that are leading and helping our new players get acclimated to our style of play and system. The crazy thing about this year is that even though it's our second season, we have so many new players so it feels like everyone is brand new."

Santa Clara opens the regular season with three of four games on the road against Pac-12 opponents. On Nov. 14 and 16 the Broncos play at Washington and at USC before the home opener vs. Air Force on Nov. 21. On Nov. 23 they travel up the road to play at Stanford. The coaches hope the rigorous nonconference schedule helps prepare the team for the always-difficult WCC.

"We are very excited about our preseason schedule," said Payne. "With the WCC being such a tough conference, we felt it was very important to be challenged early and we definitely will be challenged.  It's exciting for us to have the opportunity to play such great teams from around the country."

Every season evolves from the start of practice to the final whistle. Right now the Broncos are focused on the near-term.

"Long-term goals are hard to define with such a new and young team so we are really focused on the short term goals right now," said Payne. "Our focus every day is really understanding the type of effort and consistency that it takes to be successful at this level. We are beyond excited about the upcoming season, our players, coaching staff, and schedule and cannot wait to get out there and compete."