Stanford women's basketball will be back in action in just under a month, with the program's first exhibition game slated for Saturday, October 24, against Pacific. With the season around the corner, the ACC held its annual tip-off event in Charlotte, North Carolina, this week.

Head coach Kate Paye was joined by sophomore guard Hailee Swain and sophomore forward Alex Eschmeyer at the event. Each of them participated in a Q&A session with the media, speaking on the upcoming campaign.

Here are the most interesting points they talked about.

For decades, Stanford was a fixture in the NCAA tournament, qualifying nearly 40 years straight under legendary coach Tara VanDerveer. In that span, the program won three national titles and was the class of women's college basketball.

But times have changed. The program has missed the NCAA tournament in both seasons since Paye became head coach, and has failed to finish with a winning record in conference play in either season, going 8-10 in each year. 

This program is confident in what it can do, and in the eyes of Paye, the goal for this season is simple: make the tournament. 

"We expect to be playing in the NCAA tournament," Paye told the panel. "That is our goal. We have an extremely challenging non-conference schedule, [and] that was intentional. We are the only Power Four school to play five other Power Four schools and [have] five true road games, and I think we'll learn a lot about ourselves. 

"The ACC is a fantastic women's basketball conference. Great teams, great coaches, great players, and you have to prepare yourself for that. And with a new roster, we want to learn about ourselves early, and we will."

When people think of women's college basketball, Stanford is historically one of the first programs that come to mind. 

The Cardinal are a very young team this season, with Stanford being one of only a few programs to not have any seniors on the roster. But just because the roster is full of younger players does not mean that they don't have any leaders.

In fact, players like Swain and Eschmeyer are expected to take on that role while transfer portal pickups like Inés Sotelo Míguez and Ilse de Vries are veterans that will be key ingredients to the program's recipe this season.

"We have a young team," Paye said. "We're four juniors, four sophomores and four freshmen. I think we're one of only three Power Four teams not to have a fourth- or-fifth-year senior, and our theme this year is together. We all have t-shirts that say 'together.' We wear them quite regularly, and what I say is like Alex and Hailee, Shay Ijiwoye, have really stepped up since the spring as leaders on our team.

"We're very excited about the work that we did in the portal, bringing in Inés Sotelo Míguez, Ilse de Vries, and Charlotte Tuhy. Three players who bring maturity, experience and production to our roster. They are great fits for Stanford... Hailee is more than ready to step up as a point guard. Shay Ijiwoye is very experienced, she's ready. We have young guards. Elyse Ngenda, Gracyn Gillard, who are working hard every day, and they will do it together."

Having a young team is not always a bad thing, and if these young stars can play well for the Cardinal, it could mean great things are coming in the future. But the focus is on this season, and to get through it, the program needs to be in sync and play its best brand of basketball.

Paye mentioned the practice shirts that the team has been wearing. But that motto of 'together' truly is the theme of this season. If the Cardinal can truly embody that all year long, they may surprise people and look like the Stanford of old.

"I'm going to say 'together' because that has been our motto so far, and I think it really emulates what we want out of this year," Eschmeyer said on how she would describe Stanford basketball this season. "Just stay together, stay strong, and if we have each other, we're going to be just fine."

This year will be a true test of where Stanford is as a program. Another year outside of the NCAA tournament could mean change on the horizon, while a season of March Madness would put the Cardinal back on track.