HAMMOND, La. – A mix of seven returning letterwinners and five newcomers brings a new level of commitment to the Southeastern Louisiana women's basketball program as the 2015-2016 season gets underway Friday at the University of Arkansas.
 
Tip-off between Lady Lions and Razorbacks is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in Bud Walton Arena. The game will be streamed live at WatchESPN.com.
 
Friday's game begins a challenging opening stretch for Southeastern, which meets Auburn in its home opener on Monday before traveling to Georgia Tech, Texas Tech, Wright State and Xavier (Ohio). Second-year Lady Lions head coach Yolanda Moore said Arkansas, which advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15 and received votes in the Associated Press preseason poll, should be a good indicator of how her team will be able to conduct itself against that schedule.
 
"I want to see where we are playing in that type of environment mentally," Moore said. "It's the first game of the season and we have a lot of new players. I want to see how we're going to handle playing on the road and playing in those types of environments because that's what we are going to see for the first few games of the season. I want to see us execute our offense. I want to see how we can defend man to man, how we can handle the pressure and our mental capacity to playing in that type of environment."
 
Southeastern is looking to build on a 7-22 finish in Moore's first season. The Lady Lions came in 12th in the Southland Conference at 3-15.
 
Headlining the returnees for the Lady Lions is senior forward Nanna Pool, who earned All-Southland Conference honorable mention honors in 2014-15 after averaging 11.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. She currently ranks sixth on the school's career rebounding list with 736 and is also closing in on the top 10 in career points (888), field goals made (366), field goal percentage (.513), blocked shots (54) and games played (88).
 
Joining Pool in the front court is junior forward Chey Stewart who averaged a point and 1.4 rebounds in 28 games in 2014-15.
 
Projected starters in the backcourt are senior guards Peaches Anderson (8.1 points per game, 2.0 rpg, 42 assists, 10 steals) and Erica Hernandez (7.4 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 45 assists, 17 steals) and sophomore guard Taylin Underwood (4.4 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 9 assists, 7 steals). Hernandez is sixth in school history with 312 3-pointers attempted and 10th with 88 made. Anderson is closing in on the top 10 in both categories after making 52 of 170 3-pointers last season.
 
Coming off the bench are junior forwards Gabriella Delaune (0.0 ppg, .5 rebounds), and Dani Fielder (1.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg); freshman forward Kyle Felton; a pair of freshmen guards in Baylie Stears and Jaclyn Scholvin; and sophomore guard Bre Warren, who sat out the 2014-15 season after transferring from Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
 
Southeastern will be taking on an Arkansas squad that finished 18-14 in Jimmy Dykes' first season as head coach. The Razorbacks tied for ninth in the Southeastern Conference at 6-10, then advanced to the NCAA Tournament where they lost to No. 5 Baylor 75-44 in the second round of the Waco Regional.
 
Arkansas brings back three starters and four letterwinners, led by a pair of talented forwards in 6-3 junior Jessica Jackson (14.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and 6-0 senior Melissa Wolff (8.4 ppg, 7.8 rpg). Jackson was named to the All-SEC preseason second team earlier this week.
 
Junior guard Kelsey Brooks (13.8 ppg, 52 steals, 74 assists) returns in the backcourt.
 
Arkansas, which also brought in five freshmen and three transfers, is coming off a 73-52 exhibition win over Missouri Southern on Sunday. Jackson had 20 points and Brooks 15 for the Razorbacks. Jackson also had four of Arkansas' 11 blocked shots.
 
"They like to move on offense," Moore said of her opening opponent. "They run a five-out motion. They have some height and obviously they are physical. They're an SEC team and that's what you would expect from a typical SEC team. They're very talented and I'm sure they are building on what they did in Coach Dykes' first year and coming in this year with even greater expectations. They're wanting to go further in the tournament and finish a little bit better in the SEC so it's going to be a battle."
 
Moore said the key for team is sticking with its game plan.
 
"Doing what we do – playing smart basketball, playing disciplined basketball," Moore said. "Not getting caught up if they start running and things are not working for us on that end. We have to be smart about what is working for us. Obviously, we're going to have to match their physicality and have to match their energy. It's an early game and I think this is one of those games they are promoting to have a lot of the area schools come out so there's going to be a lot of noise in there. So it's going to be very important for us to stay focused and stay within our game plan."
 
This is the second meeting between the two schools. Arkansas defeated Southeastern 97-40 in game five of the 2000-01 season.