Each season expectations are high for the Aberdeen Roncalli girls’ basketball team, but this year they might be even higher than usual.

The Cavaliers return four starters and several key reserves off a team that was one game away from the state tournament last season.

“Bringing back four starters and bringing back a group that we only lost one person from last year’s team, yes, the expectations are high, but I feel like they’re high ever year,” said Roncalli coach Derek Larson. “I feel like we haven’t started the season any different than we would have if we had a rookie crew, also.”

While the Cavaliers are still nearly a week away from their season opener at Redfield on Thursday, the action has been intense at practices and Larson likes what he has seen.

“Practice has been awesome so far. We’ve had a ton of competitive practices. We have eighth-graders in here all the way up to seniors,” Larson said. “No one takes it easy on each other, which I appreciate. What I told some of the young kids is that every other girl that’s a senior or a junior or any other grade has been through this before, where you might get the ball stolen and no one’s going to feel sorry for you.”

The same thing can be said for opponents of the Cavaliers as well. Roncalli is not opposed to stealing the ball on a regular basis and will once again rely on its defense, a staple of the program for many years.

“We stress defense,” Larson said. “Maybe that’s why we’re better on that than the other side, because we stress defense a lot in practice.”

And there’s one main reason for that.

“You can always be consistent on that end,” Larson said. “You can’t always make shots every night, but you can always be consistent on that end.”

The Cavaliers will be led by returning starters seniors Ava Hanson, Maddie Huber and McKenna O’Keefe, and junior Claire Crawford. They will be joined by Rylee Voeller and Morgan Helms, who both saw major minutes a year ago, as well as Gabby Thomas, Elyana Roach, Karsyn Davis and Olivia Dix.

While Roncalli lost in the SoDak 16 a year ago and returns a veteran squad, Larson said there isn’t much talk about the state tournament. He said Region 1A is loaded with quality opponents.

“I think for sure the top four teams in the region are really solid. With Milbank and Groton and Sisseton and us, I think those are all tough teams and I think any of those teams can beat each other on any given night,” Larson said. “There’s definitely not a time where we think, oh, we’re the oldest group or we’re the best group. We want to come in and make sure that we’re getting better every day. Don’t talk hardly at all about the state tournament.”

The Cavaliers aren’t exceptionally tall and haven’t had a player taller than 6-feet since Madelyn Bragg graduated a few years ago.

“We haven’t had size since then, so it’s not like it’s something new,” Larson said. “We tell our kids all the time that we can’t the play the who’s taller game, because we’re always going to lose that one, so we gotta make sure that we’re being physical, and we’re rebounding, and boxing out and things like that, because you can always take advantage in other ways even though you’re undersized.”

While Roncalli can play offense in the half court, the Cavaliers would prefer to get out in transition and have their defense help out the offense.

“We definitely need to make sure we’re getting out and running in transition. One thing we’ve been stressing the last couple years is just defensive rebounding,” Larson said. “I think when you stress defensive rebounding, you don’t get maybe as many transition points, but just getting in the passing lanes and creating some turnovers, and converting that defense into offense is definitely going to be key for us.”

The defense will likely allow the Cavaliers to be in every game they play this season, regardless of opponent.

“We’re definitely not, the I’d say best half-court offensive team in the state,” Larson said, “but I think we can defend with the best of them.”