 Last year, the Bemidji State women's soccer team had a season to remember, finishing the regular season unbeaten and earning their first ever bid to the NCAA tournament. Sports director AJ Feldman has more on how the Beavers are looking to raise the bar once again. The Beavers have improved on their record for the past three seasons and have amassed a quality roster from top to bottom. I think if you look at our roster, you know, it's not just talented, it's hard working and it's character-filled, so I think, you know, when you start to add those components together, you come up with a pretty good, pretty good formula and a pretty good product. And the conference is noticed as the Beavers were picked second in the pre-season poll, the highest in the program's history. People are scared of us, so I think that creates a really good environment competitively and yeah, I'm just excited, I'm excited for us to show the conference what we have still. The team returns their top four goalscores from last season and will use their speed to overpower their opponents. We're a very fast team. We have speed up top in the middle and defensively and our defense are very good at coming up with the attack, so with our speed we can just penetrate their defense really easily. Keeber Anaphobie has seen split time in the past three seasons, but now, even as the veteran of the staff, she's not getting complacent. Never gonna give up, even if, you know, I know I have a certain spot, you never guaranteed anything, so you just have to work hard for it. Last year's run to the tournament was a memorable one and is motivating the team to make it right on back. It was a great experience. I mean, half of us got tattoos because we made history. So we're really excited and we really want to do the same thing and, you know, this year instead of getting a bid, we want to earn our way into the tournament. We want to win our way in the tournament. Girls sports are picking up in the U.S. and stuff, so it's exciting to kind of represent that, especially in Bemidji and have girls look up to us as well as, you know, around the city where we're all from. Reporting in Bemidji, A.J. Feldman, Lakeland News. The Beavers kicked off their season with a win last week against Oklahoma Baptist and begin conference play with their home opener on Wednesday against Minnesota Crookston. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.