The No. 10 Georgetown women’s basketball team is set to tip off the 2011-2012 season against Longwood tonight at McDonough Arena.

The Blue and Gray return 12 players after graduating only one senior, guard Monica McNutt, from last year’s squad and hope to build on last season’s run to the Sweet 16.

The 2011-12 Hoyas were recently ranked No. 10 in the country in the Associated Press Preseason Poll and No. 11 in the USA Today/ESPN Preseason Coaches’ Poll — their highest preseason rankings ever. These high ratings have generated lofty expectations, but Head Coach TerriWilliams-Flournoy has her players focused on the task at hand.

“I told our players not to look at this as a stress. … It’s nothing but another challenge. It’s another season beginning with another challenge for us,” Williams-Flournoysaid. “Are we excited to go into this season? Absolutely. At this point, you’re tired of playing against each other, you’re ready to go out and play a game now.”

Expected to lead the way for Georgetown in the season opener are junior guard Sugar Rodgers, who led the Hoyas in scoring last year with 18.7 points per game, and seniors Rubylee Wright, Tia Magee, and Adria Crawford, who join her in the starting lineup. Either senior guard Alexa Roche or senior forward Tommacina McBride will likely round out the starting five, and junior center Sydney Wilson is expected to play a bigger role than she has in the past.

“The players that we are expecting to step up this year need to begin stepping up with this game,”Williams-Flournoy said. “It’s [Wilson’s] junior year, she’s healthy and I think that helps Sydney as far as her mindset.”

Georgetown’s Friday night opponent, Longwood, is a Division I Independent from Farmville, Va. The Lancers return four starters from a team that finished the 2010-2011 campaign with a 7-23 record.

Longwood is led by senior forward Brittanni Billups, who led the team in both scoring and rebounding last year with 9.4 points and 6.7 boards per game. She is joined in the lineup by three fellow returning starters: Senior guard Mina Jovanovic, junior forward Chelsea Coward and junior guard Erin Neal. Longwood also returns three other players and welcomes three freshmen to the roster.

“Their four and their five are their two leading scorers,” Williams-Flournoy said. “They’re very long, lanky athletic post players that we have to be ready to sit down and defend.”

Despite their struggles, the Lancers are likely to give the Hoyas several different looks under first-year Head Coach Bill Reinson. During Reinson’s reign as interim head coach last season, 10 different players appeared in the starting lineup for Longwood and 12 players averaged more than 10 minutes of playing time per contest.

Virtually every player who touches the floor is a scoring option for the Lancers, but without a go-to player that can take over a game like the Hoyas’ Rodgers, Longwood lacks the scoring punch to penetrate the Georgetown defense, which terrorized opponents last year.

The Blue and Gray will look to get out early against the likely overmatched Lancers, so it is possible that some of the younger players could make an appearance in the second half as Georgetown tries to shake off the rust of a long offseason. But talented as they are, the freshmen — Taylor Brown, Brittany Horne and Jasmine Jackson — likely will not see major floor time this season on a veteran-heavy squad.

“The freshmen won’t look like freshmen,” Williams-Flournoy said. “In all honesty, with such a veteran team, it’s almost time that they will have to sit back and wait their turn a little bit. But I think they still will get playing time.”