A 10-win season, a top-flight scorer and the entire starting five back has the Northwood-Kensett girls’ basketball team entering the season with some lofty aspirations.

The Vikings haven’t had a winning season since before Iowa required all teams play 5-on-5 in 1993. But for the past two seasons Northwood-Kensett has been on the cusp of a winning season. The Vikings have finished one game below .500 for the past two seasons and won 10 games both times.

With a group of experienced upperclassmen Northwood-Kensett believes this could be the season the team enjoys a winning record. The Vikings will get their first crack at a victory Friday against North Iowa at home, but before that the team will take part in a jamboree at Corwith-Wesley-LuVerne Tuesday.

“This is expected to be the year for something to happen,” said senior Kate Hartman, who averaged 21.1 points per game and 16 rebounds. “At the end of the season last year we made a goal of competing for a conference title.”

The Vikings fully intend to make a run at the conference title and reigning champion North Butler. The players have spent the offseason playing in summer leagues, attending camps, working on their speed and strength to help them achieve a winning season.

Head coach Daryl Love believes his team can compete for the conference title especially with the extra depth the team added.

The starting lineup features four seniors, but Love has five sophomores and three freshmen that can come off the bench. Those players will help with the offensive workload as the team finds some reliable scorers to take pressure off of Hartman, who ranked seventh in points per game in the entire state of Iowa.

Kjirsti Davidson, a senior who averaged 8.1 points per game last year, is expected to should some of the offensive workload. Love and the coaching staff want her to create more off her dribble drive and hit the outside shot.

“All of us need to shoot,” Davidson said. “Coach has been telling me to get into the lane and try to score as much as possible.”

Love has been around for most of the lean years but the team went from six wins three years ago to 10 two years ago and repeated the feat last season. All that remains is for the team to find that 11th and 12th win to put itself over .500 for the first time in what seems like eons.