ALBANY — A two-point loss to Vermont in last season’s America East championship game still torments the University at Albany women’s basketball program, but any retribution in 2023-24 will be accomplished by a roster that has only six returning players.

The Great Danes, 22-12 a year ago and 45-22 over the past two seasons, launch the sixth campaign of coach Colleen Mullen (74-72, .507) on Monday night at Merrimack. UAlbany has lost four of its top seven scorers but is bolstered by the 11th-hour return of graduate forward Helene Haegerstrand and the addition of three transfers and five freshmen.

“If that would have been a win or a loss,” Haegerstrand said of the 38-36 loss to Vermont, “it’s something you either want to avenge or you want to do it again. That’s a motivator either way.”

The Danes were picked third of nine teams in the preseason America East coaches’ poll, behind Vermont and Maine. Senior Kayla Cooper was selected to the preseason all-conference team.

“When you get there and you lose by such a little amount, it’s so deflating,” Mullen said. “They took the time to process that, and now we have a new face, a new energy.

“We have a lot of new players, but that core of those players, knowing how that feels, how much work you have to put in to get to that point, they’ve instilled that type of standard in all of our freshmen and newcomers here. There’s an edge to want to get back there.”

For now, according to Mullen, the Great Danes’ immediate focus is on improving each day and getting the new blood integrated with what’s returning.

UAlbany lost six players to the transfer portal: graduate students Morgan Haney (Akron), Grace Heeps (Canisius) and Taniya Hanner (Radford), junior Freja Werth (San Francisco), and sophomores Karyn Sanford (Tarleton State) and Taylor Moffat (Williston State). Haney and Heeps, an East Greenbush native, were starters.

In addition, senior mainstays Ellen Hahne and Lucia Decortes have graduated.

“Nobody left under bad terms,” Mullen said. “They’re all graduates of UAlbany. They’re all alums that I hope come back and continue to feel that pride to the university and our program, and I wish them well. I feel like our staff helped provide them a positive experience, they got better as players, they were part of championship programs, and they were empowered to take a chance and see what another program was like.”

The cupboard is far from bare, especially considering the fluidity of college rosters these days. The Great Danes, who won the America East in 2021-22, have 55 percent of their scoring and 45 percent of the rebounding from last year’s team returning.

The incoming transfers should help offset the experience lost. Meghan Huerter, a 5-11 guard from Clifton Park, arrived after two seasons at Providence, where she averaged 3.4 points and 1.5 rebounds last year. Graduate transfer Sarah Karpell, a 5-7 guard, was a four-year player at Fordham, starting 67 of 109 games. Sophomore Gabriela Falcão, a 6-1 center, left La Salle after averaging 1.5 points and 1.2 rebounds as a freshman.

“We learned a lot from the veterans that came and went last year,” said Cooper, who averaged 15.2 points and 8.3 rebounds last season, both tops on the team. “We’re very young, so we’re still learning, but we have a lot more speed. We’re quick and hungry.”

The freshmen on the roster are 5-11 Selina Monestime from Framingham, Mass.; 6-2 Deja Evans of Conshohocken, Pa.; 5-11 Hailee Ford from Perry Hall, Md.; 6-0 Jessica Cooper of South Plainfield, N.J., and Ida Allberg of Stockholm, Sweden, the same hometown as Haegerstrand.

Haegerstrand was working as a student assistant and nursing a leg injury when she decided less than two weeks ago to return. She is sixth on the school’s career scoring list.

“It’s just the opportunity that I was given by Coach,” she said. “She had this scholarship, and I’m grateful that I had the chance to come back and for helping the team. I feel like we have a good season in front of us, and I’m just happy to help.”

ALBANY — University at Albany wide receiver Brevin Easton called it a “really routine” play, when it looked like anything but that.

His diving 37-yard touchdown catch from a heavily pressured Reese Poffenbarger on the game’s third play sent the 23rd-ranked Great Danes on their way to a convincing 24-8 victory over No. 24 William & Mary in front of 3,518 fans at Casey Stadium.

“It definitely was a great start to what we wanted to do,” Easton said. “We wanted to move fast and our goal is to have teams play from behind so they have to throw the ball so our pass-rushers can get after them. … It was a deep ball. Me and Reese connect on that type of stuff all the time in practice, so it was really routine, honestly.”

There’s nothing ordinary in general about the Great Danes (7-3 overall, 5-1 CAA), who took another step toward the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs and moved into a five-way tie for first place with Delaware, Elon, Richmond and Villanova with two weeks remaining.

UAlbany, vying for its first CAA championship, travels to play winless Stony Brook for the Golden Apple Trophy next Saturday.

“It’s just keep winning,” UAlbany head coach Greg Gattuso said. “So many coaches talk about go 1-0 that week, but we’ve got our kids trusting the concept of win every day, whether it’s resting properly, rehabbing, learning, practicing, we’re just trying to be a complete football team and they’ve really bought into what we’re doing. We’re not worried about anybody else. We’re really not. If we win, it’s obviously a massive thing. This was a big win for our kids.”

Another memorable play came from UAlbany cornerback Aamir Hall, whose 45-yard interception return gave the Great Danes a 17-0 lead with 2:07 left in the first half.

Coming on a blitz, Hall stopped and leaped to intercept Darius Wilson’s pass into the right flat. Though Wilson caught up to him at the William & Mary 25, Hall kept running while in Wilson’s grasp and pulled the quarterback into the end zone. UAlbany defensive tackle Elijah Hills helped push Hall the final 10 yards even as Tribe offensive lineman Rian Haigler also attempted a tackle.

Hall said his mother gave him motivation.

“It was just me and (Wilson) between the end zone,” Hall said. “I knew that I wanted to get in today. I talked to my mom last night, and she said, ‘All you need is a pick and a touchdown now.’ It’s funny because she actually manifested that for me today. … Ended up doing that for her today and that’s really just a blessing.”

The play highlighted a stellar day for the UAlbany defense, which came up with its most recent goal-line stand in the third quarter.

On second down from the 3, UAlbany linebacker Dylan Kelly stopped William & Mary running back Martin Lucas just shy of the end zone. Then the Great Danes stuffed Lucas on direct snaps from inside the 1 on third and fourth down. Safety Larry Walker Jr. was credited with the fourth-down tackle.

Though William & Mary helped UAlbany by going with shotgun snaps instead of a simple quarterback sneak, the Great Danes still rose to the challenge.

“They believe,” Gattuso said. “Dylan Kelly, Ori Jean (-Charles), that linebacking corps is so aggressive and our corners show up. We commit to it. That front four, it’s a commitment to getting underneath the offensive linemen. That kind of stuff is want-to more than anything else. They’ve got to want to play like that.”

Gattuso wasn’t happy with a William & Mary player walking down UAlbany’s path to the field before the game, which Gattuso called “not acceptable.” Hall said it fired up the Great Danes.

While the Great Danes sometimes lost their cool with eight penalties for 88 yards, including three personal fouls and one unsportsmanlike conduct, they still earned a dominant win.

Poffenbarger threw for 205 yards and a touchdown and Griffin Woodell of Glens Falls ran for 100 yards, including a15-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

UALBANY VS. WILLIAM & MARY

ALBANY — When the Coastal Athletic Association football season dawned in August, the University at Albany was an afterthought and William & Mary was the near-unanimous favorite.

The landscape has changed as the 23rd-ranked Great Danes take on the No. 24 Tribe at 1 p.m. Saturday at Casey Stadium in a game with Football Championship Subdivision playoff ramifications.

UAlbany, chosen 11th in the preseason coaches’ poll, is 6-3 overall, 4-1 in the CAA. Tied for third, the Great Danes are in contention for the CAA regular-season title and would take a major step toward a postseason berth with a victory on Saturday.

“We both need this game because it’s a win against a ranked opponent, so it’s a big one,” UAlbany coach Greg Gattuso said.

While still a good team, William & Mary (5-3, 3-2) is alone in sixth place after getting 13 of 14 possible first-place votes in the preseason poll. The Tribe would greatly help their playoff resume with a win over the Great Danes.

“It definitely means something to us because we feel we’re one of the best teams in the country, if not the best team in the country, period,” UAlbany graduate linebacker Ori Jean-Charles said. “When we get an opportunity to play good opponents like this, it means a lot.”

William & Mary edged Monmouth 31-28 last week to snap a three-game losing streak that included a 27-13 defeat at Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Tribe coach Mike London, who led his team to the FCS quarterfinals last season, also guided Richmond to the national championship in 2008.

While understanding why William & Mary was the preseason choice, Gattuso said he’s never put any stock in preseason polls.

“It just doesn’t mean anything because I think preseason polls are idiotic,” Gattuso said. “That said, they’re a good football team. They’re very good. They played UVA tough. He (London) is a really good football coach and I think he does a good job. I think they warranted being preseason (favorite). That would have been my favorite, one of those guys, but at the end of the day, the next three weeks is going to be gigantic for the whole conference because there’s a lot of games late here that are going to (determine) what happens in the playoffs and conference championships and all that stuff.”

UAlbany will try to stay undefeated at home in a game that’s also dedicated to breast cancer awareness.

The Great Danes, averaging 34.3 points and 475.6 yards of offense over their past three games, run into a William & Mary defense that allows 17.9 points and 282.1 yards per contest, both best in the CAA.

Tribe junior linebacker John Pius, who has 7 1 /2sacks, finished second in the voting last year for the Buck Buchanan Award, which goes to the top defensive player in FCS. Defensive lineman Nate Lynn, a third-team all-American last season, has eight sacks.

“They’ve got two studs on the D-line,” UAlbany quarterback Reese Poffenbarger said. “But you know, we’ve played big-time opponents this year. We’ve seen guys that are of their caliber. But obviously, major respect to them. Those two guys, 99 (Lynn) and 8 (Pius) are great players and we’ve got to find a way to contain them and I think we will. They’re pretty sound everywhere else, but we’ve just got to play our game and do what we’ve been doing and I think good things are going to happen.”

William & Mary junior running back Malachi Imoh is second in the CAA with 714 rushing yards. But the Tribe, led by junior quarterback Darius Wilson, are second-to-last in the league with 144.4 yards passing per game and eight TD passes. Wilson did throw for 283 yards and two touchdowns last week.

Uncle Jim came to watch University at Albany senior linebacker Dylan Kelly play last Saturday at Casey Stadium.

After the Great Danes dominated Rhode Island, Uncle Jim stopped by his nephew’s off-campus housing. He was as impressed by what he heard as he was with what he saw from Dylan on the field.

“The thing I like about Dylan is, he listens to classic rock and roll,” Jim said Wednesday in a phone interview. “You’ve got to love that in a kid nowadays. When we went to his house after the game was over, I’m listening to him and I’m like, ‘Wow, he even knows the words to these old songs.’ Listening to the Doobie Brothers and all the ones that Uncle Jim listened to growing up.”

Uncle Jim is Jim Kelly, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Buffalo Bills to four straight Super Bowl appearances during his 11 seasons with the franchise.

Dylan never bragged about their relationship. The local media and even UAlbany’s athletic communications department were unaware of it until Flo-Football and WTMM (104.5 FM) sideline reporter Madison Jones revealed that tidbit during last Saturday’s broadcast.

“He’s my uncle,” Dylan said. “He’s taught me a lot about the sport. But if I don’t get asked about it, I don’t talk about it.”

“He’s very low-key,” UAlbany coach Greg Gattuso added. “I’m trying to remember if I knew (Jim is his uncle).”

Dylan, raised in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, is doing Jim and the rest of his family proud. Playing middle linebacker, he’s second in the Football Championship Subdivision with 100 tackles as UAlbany (5-3 overall, 3-1 Coastal Athletic Association) enters Saturday’s game at Maine (2-6, 1-4).

Jim, 63, watched with his brother Dan, Dylan’s father, and other family in the Casey Stadium stands while Dylan made nine tackles, including six solo, and had an interception.

“His smartness, his ability to get to the play quick,” Jim Kelly said. “In school, I was recruited to play linebacker also. Plus, pretty much all the Kellys played linebacker, whether it was inside or outside or whatever. Just his instinct, knowing to get to the ball and knowing how to play that position. He’s not a typical middle linebacker. He’s more of an outside, to me personally, because of his size (6-foot-2, 224 pounds). I mean, his size is good, but his quickness is very good. As I said before, his alertness to get where he needs to be is really unbelievable.”

The Kellys tailgated and Jim enjoyed the “U-A, you know!” chant. He now owns a UAlbany hoodie.

“It was the first Albany game he’s been to, so it’s a good thing we got the win,” said Dylan, who added he put on the classic rock afterward to please his father and uncle.

Though the Kelly family is from Pittsburgh, Jim’s younger twin brothers, Dan and Kevin, followed him to his stops at the University of Miami, the Houston Gamblers of the USFL and Buffalo. They all still live in Buffalo.

Dan worked as Jim’s agent later in his NFL career and handled his business during Jim’s battles with oral cancer.

“My brother Dan has been there from start to finish and it’s been pretty cool,” Jim said.

Dylan reaped the benefits of having a Bills icon as his uncle. He attended as many Bills games as he could and occasionally was allowed on the sideline before games.

“When I was young, I didn’t really understand what was going on,” Dylan said. “Then when I get to middle school, teachers start coming up to you, ‘You don’t understand what it was like during the heyday.’ Yeah, it was a shocker in middle school, when I really started to understand what he did for our community. Now he’s just Uncle Jim.”

Jim Kelly, whose son Hunter died at 8 years old of Krabbe Disease in 2005, has followed several nephews’ football careers. Casey is a junior tight end at Oregon and Mitchell is a freshman safety at Mount Union.

Jim said he might return to Casey Stadium for UAlbany’s Nov. 4 game against William & Mary.

“I love watching my nephews and Dylan’s the one up now and I’m watching and enjoying it,” he said. “We’re football players, we’re football uncles, we’re football dads. So we love it.”