By P.J. Harmer

Staff Writer

One down, a whole season to go for the Hartwick women’s water polo team.

The Hawks will be minus the top Division I scorer in the country when their 2007 schedule opens at 1 p.m. Saturday at the University of California at Davis. Hartwick lost Bronwen Knox to the Australian National Team after the 127-goal scorer helped the Hawks to their second NCAA Tournament appearance in 2006. Knox led Hartwick to a 28-11 record and a sixth-place tournament finish as a sophomore last spring.

"Collectively as a team, we’ll work to fill that void," said senior Keri James, who finished second last season in team scoring, with 51 goals and 54 assists. "We have the players."

But they no longer have THE player.

"That’s a huge loss," fourth-year coach Alan Huckins said of Knox, who had 229 goals in two seasons _ second on Hartwick’s all-time scoring list. Sheri Johnson is the all-time leader in goals, scoring 269 from 2001-04.

"We’re trying to look at it in a positive way," Huckins continued. "It opens opportunities for others. Some girls passed up opportunities last year on the offensive end, so hopefully as a team, we can step up or have one or two individuals who will step up and want to be the person to take the last shot.

"I have a team full of girls willing to take that shot."

James appears to be the frontrunner to inherit high-scoring honors for 12th-ranked Hartwick, which returns 13 veterans, including five of its top seven scorers from a season ago.[an error occurred while processing this directive]