Hoping to find better basketball by chemistry, the Cowgirls look to make a push up the Southland Conference standings with more than a few new faces.

They also took a different direction in their way of putting together what third-year head coach Lynn Kennedy hopes are the final pieces to their rebuilding puzzle.

With more than half the roster new, McNeese State is looking to change the attitude of a club that struggled with chemistry last year.

“I feel our chemistry is great, especially when you compare it to last year,” said junior guard Christina Gil. “It is fun playing together. We complement each other.”

One of those gone from last year’s team is guard Kaili Chamberlin, the 2022 SLC and Louisiana Freshman of the Year. She started 28 of 31 games last season as a sophomore, averaging 8.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

Last season the Cowgirls struggled to finish games, ending with a 12-19 record after going 13-15 the season before. McNeese won 18 games in the three previous seasons before Kennedy took over the program in the spring of 2021.

Kennedy says he believes this team, picked by league coaches and sports information directors in a preseason poll to finish tied for fifth, is built the way he wants and is ready to make its way back into the conference championship race.

“We have been knocking on the door,” Kennedy said. “Now it is time we kick it in and welcome ourselves to the party.”

Gil will be a key. The 5-foot, 8-inch point guard struggled with a leg injury last season, never playing while fully healthy.

“My leg is much better,” Gil said. “Last year was a bit of a roller coaster. How we play as a team, that is what’s going to stick and help us perform.”

With no seniors on the roster, the Cowgirls will need players like Gil to pick up the leadership role. Transfer Emilia Tenbrock, a 6-foot-1 junior from Division II Columbus (Ga.) State, could also provide leadership.

“I wanted to take a step up in competition,” Tenbrock said. “It has been great so far. We are working together and we know what we need to do to win.”

Tenbrock led Columbus State in scoring last year at 15.3 points a game and was second averaging six rebounds.

There are eight newcomers with four of them being freshmen with a pair coming from Oklahoma. Azjah Reeves and Boston Berry should help give the Cowgirls more of an athletic look this year, Kennedy said. As should Crystal Hayes, a 6-4 guard from Houston.

“We are much more athletic and have much more length,” Kennedy said. “We are better shooting, better rebounding, and better on defense this year.

“Now that it is all of our recruits we can build this the way we want to build it.”

It is a change in philosophy from the first two years when Kennedy hit the NCAA transfer portal much harder.

“We went with the transfer portal last year and we did not fare well in it,” Kennedy said. “We have got some good freshmen that are going to be a big part of our team.”

The Cowgirls will open the season with a game against Dillard University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics program, at 11 a.m. Monday at the Legacy Center.

McNeese has never lost to Dillard, winning all seven game. However, the teams have not met since 1979.

Unlike last year, when the Cowgirls played two of their first six games at home, they will play their first six games at home, three of them when they host a multi-team event when they will face a trio of mid-major opponents in three days. Nine of McNeese’s 12 pre-conference games will be at home.

The Cowgirls will travel to play Baylor, Kansas State and No. 1 ranked and defending national champion LSU as their nonconference road games.

“I think this is a good schedule for us,” Kennedy said. “We will get a chance to play some home games against like teams that should help us before we play the big schools.”

Kennedy said he hopes all the changes lead to his team’s rise in the standings.

“It is time for us to take the next step up,” he said.