Central Valley varsity girls basketball head coach Jesse Padilla will face a tall task this winter.

The Hawks lost all five of their starters to graduation, including Blanca Espinoza, Alexis Contreras, Adria Robinson, Adriana Haynes and Delores Uti.

Espinoza, a first-team all-Western Athletic Conference point guard, led the Hawks in scoring (11.9 ppg), assists (2.2 apg) and steals (2.0 spg).

She averaged 3.1 rebounds per game.

Blanca also drained 15 3-pointers.

Contreras, a second-team all-league guard, averaged 11.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

"We're young," Padilla said. "It's going to be a challenge. We're going to have to be able to play together and trust each other. It's a process."

Central Valley returns four role players from last year's team, including Sunaina Dhillon (junior forward), Rosie Duarte (senior guard), Chetna Kumar (senior guard) and Guadalupe Becerra (junior guard).

Dhillon averaged 4.7 points per game at the varsity level as a sophomore.

Duarte averaged 3.9 points and 1.1 rebounds.

Kumar averaged 2.2 points.

Newcomers Isabella Andres (junior), Angelina Black (junior), Julie Garcia (junior), Angelina Knights (junior), Alyssa Maeyama (junior), Jennifer Novoa (junior) and Anmolpreet Sangha (junior) round out the Hawks' roster.

Andres, Black, Garcia, Knights, Maeyama, Novoa and Sangha were all members of Central Valley's WAC runner-up junior-varsity squad a year ago.

"Their basketball knowledge is not up there yet," Padilla said. "I like how they want to learn."

The varsity Hawks went 11-13, finished second in the WAC standings (7-3) and lost 75-58 to Atwater in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division-II playoffs last season.

Central Valley also improved its all-time record versus crosstown-rival Ceres High to 13-10.

The Hawks beat the Bulldogs twice (45-38, 49-30).

New-look Central Valley will try to make its fourth straight postseason appearance this winter.

"I'll be happy to go .500," Padilla said.