ORONO – On Tuesday night, while she and her University of Maine field hockey teammates huddled in their tents as a thunderstorm interrupted a team-building retreat, a soaked Janet Riese yelled to a neighboring tent and asked coach Terry Kix a simple question.

“‘Are we safe?”

“She’s like, ‘I think so,’ said Riese, a senior from Augusta. “I said, ‘OK. I’m taking your word for it.'”

That exchange pretty much sums up the attitude in the Black Bear training camp as UMaine prepares to open its season against national power Iowa on Friday night.

The defense is excellent. Versatile players abound.

The Black Bears are safe. And Kix expects them to be competitive every time they take the field.

How successful they end up being? That’s the big question.

“I think we’ve really improved a lot from last year’s team,” said Kix, referring to a squad that went 8-11 overall and finished seventh in America East play with a 3-5 mark.

“I think our weakness would be that we have a lot of players in new positions,” she said.

Still, that weakness isn’t necessarily a weakness: You also have to consider the players Kix is referring to.

Tops among them may be fifth-year senior Morgan Brady, an All-Big East selection at Boston College who transferred for her final year during the off-season.

Brady will anchor the defense from the sweeper position and gives the Black Bears a proven leader in the back.

In field hockey, players don’t have to sit out a year after transferring, so Brady is immediately eligible as a fifth-year graduate student. She sat out her first year at BC as a redshirt.

“People don’t usually go another place for their fifth year in any sport, so I was a little bit apprehensive about it,” Brady said. “But everyone – coaching staff, training staff, everyone on the team – was so welcoming and so open to me, it made the transition so much easier.”

Kix says the defense is the team’s biggest asset: Brady is just one of several standouts. Others include sophomore goalie Jaye Lance, who played in 10 games and allowed just 1.02 goals per game as a freshman; center back Riese; and returning starters Rebecca Ouellet and Jen Johnson.

“I believe if our defense does its job in front of [Lance], she will make the saves that we need her to make,” Kix said. “It will have to be a very well-executed play to beat our defense with Jaye.”

Ouellet has missed some practice time of late with a pulled leg muscle, while Johnson has been sidelined for a week with a quadriceps strain she sustained after overcompensating for the right anterior cruciate ligament she had surgically repaired last fall.

Johnson returned to the practice field on Wednesday.

“I’m getting a little bit sick of being hurt,” said Johnson, who, with Riese, is a co-captain for UMaine.

The midfield will be anchored by junior Jen Johnstone, the Bears’ leading scorer in 2000 with nine goals and an assist.

She’ll be flanked by junior Karly Bundy on the left and one of two freshmen: Emily Dooling of Winthrop or Traci Rainone of East Greenwich, R.I.

Kix switched Bundy from the attacking right side to the left in order to slow other teams’ attacks, but will switch the speedster to the right in certain situations.

Up front, the Bears will look for scoring punch from junior Kristy Ferran of Winslow on the left (3 goals and 2 assists in 2000), soph Karyn Magno in the middle and junior Tara Bedard of Skowhegan (5 & 3) on the right.

Sophomore Jana Ouellette of Jay and freshman Rachael Hilgar will also play important roles up front.

MAINE FIELD HOCKEY SCHEDULE

AUGUST

30, Iowa, 7 p.m.

SEPTEMBER

2, Colgate, 1 p.m.

8, * Temple, TBA

9, * North Carolina or Michigan, TBA

14, Ball State, 7 p.m.

18, Albany, 3:30 p.m.

21, Delaware, 7 p.m.

23, Towson, noon

28, at Drexel, TBA

30, at Hofstra, noon

OCTOBER

6, Boston University, 7 p.m.

8, Rhode Island, noon

12, Quinnipiac, 3 p.m.

14, Vermont, noon

16, vs. Davidson, at Worcester, Mass., noon

21, at Northeastern, noon

22, at Boston College, 7 p.m.

27, at New Hampshire, 1 p.m.

28, at Providence, noon

NOVEMBER

2, America East semifinals (higher seeds)

4 America East championship (higher seed)

* Temple University Tournament