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BRONX, N.Y. -- The Fordham women's basketball team's 2015-16 season officially started Tuesday with the first official day of practice inside the Rose Hill Gym, where fifth-year head coach Stephanie Gaitley welcomed back nine letterwinners coupled with seven newcomers, including five freshmen.

The Rams are a little over a month out from their Nov. 15 season opener at Penn State. Fordham is coming off a third straight 20-win season and a third consecutive postseason appearance. Twenty wins this year would be four seasons in a row, the first such feat in program history.

Only two seniors are on this year's roster in Samantha Clark and Khadijah Gibson.

Clark has started 93 consecutive games in her career and 95 out of 101 overall. Over three seasons, she has averaged 8.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Clark is 125 points away from becoming the 18th player in program history to tally 1,000 points and needs 51 rebounds to record 700, which would place her eighth on the all-time list. She also has 113 career blocks, which ranks sixth all-time in program history. Clark is coming off a junior campaign that saw her finish seventh in the Atlantic 10 in rebounding at 7.6 boards per game and 12th in blocks at 1.1 rejections per game.

Gibson came off the bench in 13 games last year and brings a plethora of energy and leadership to the team, especially on the defensive side of the ball. In a victory over Manhattan last season, she set numerous career highs, including points (9), field goals (4) and minutes (14).

Three juniors return as well, and all three played significant roles in 2013-14. Hannah Missry started 25 of 30 games and is the team's top returning scorer at 9.3 points per game and three-point shooter (78-of-209, .381). Her 161 career trey balls ranks fifth in program history, and she needs 73 more to become the school's all-time three-point leader. Missry ranked eighth in the conference in three-point field goal percentage and second in made three-point field goals.

Danielle Burns started 15 of 33 games as a sophomore, averaging 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds per game while playing tough-nosed defense. She came off the bench and scored a career-high 12 points at nationally-ranked George Washington, who went on to win the Atlantic 10.

Danielle Padovano played in 32 games and made one start, which game against Syracuse in the second contest of the year. She shot nearly 31 percent from behind the arc, hit the game-winning three-pointer in overtime against Richmond on national television, and followed that up one week later with a career-high 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from downtown in another nationally-televised game at St. Bonaventure.

G'mrice Davis leads a group of four sophomores who return this year. Davis started seven of 33 games, including the final six of the season. In her second career start, she poured in a career-high 19 points in a late-season victory at George Mason. Davis is the team's third-leading returning scorer at 6.7 points per game and second-leading rebounder at 4.3 boards per game.

Asnate Fomina saw action in 31 contests, with one start and averaged 2.7 points per game over 11.5 minutes per game. Britt Zappeij totaled 49 minutes over nine contests, and Aaliyah Jones played in three games before season her season come to an end with an injury two days before Thanksgiving.

Five freshmen and two transfers compile the group of newcomers to the program. Lauren Holden, Alexia Douglas, Kate Kreslina, Kristen Ryan and Alex Parlato will all be playing their first season of college basketball, while junior Tiffany Suarez and sophomore Nicole Floyd will have to sit out this season because of the transfer rule. Both newbies came from the Atlantic Coast Conference, with Suarez from Virginia and Floyd from Wake Forest.