LEWISTON – Don’t get the Bates College women’s basketball team wrong. The idea of being challenged by up to four of last year’s NCAA Division III tournament teams through the first three weeks of the season is nice. Exciting, even.

Like a class of kindergartners, however, the Bobcats just can’t wait for the holiday break. And who can blame them?

Once final examinations are out of the way, in a matter of hours, Bates will welcome back a certain 1,000-point scorer from a medical redshirt year and then hop a flight to a tournament in the Caribbean.

Couple the return of 6-foot-2 senior center Meg Coffin with whatever recharging of the batteries takes place at the Bahamas Sunshine Shootout, and the Bobcats should be well equipped to crash Bowdoin College and the University of Southern Maine’s party as a nationally ranked team.

“I know we’re going to play better,” said Bates coach Jim Murphy. “Whether or not we have a better record, who knows? We’re playing some very tough teams out of the conference.”

Beginning tonight with a road trip to USM (5:30 p.m., Hill Gymnasium, Gorham), Bates begins an opening phase of its schedule that also includes St. Lawrence, the University of Maine at Farmington and potentially Norwich, depending upon the results of a first-round tournament game.

Bates should be up for that challenge, for starters, given the return of its Big Three from 2006-07.

Forwards Val Beckwith and Matia Kostakis combined for more than 30 points and 15 rebounds per game.

Point guard Sarah Barton set Bates single-game and season records for assists, ranking third in the nation with 6.9 per game, and was selected as a pre-season All-America by D3Hoops.com.

“So far, so good,” said gritty, four-year starter Barton, already in midseason form with a cut across the bridge of her nose. “We’re still coming along, but we’re definitely making progress and hopefully getting better every day.”

Now blend in Coffin, who was poised to be the team’s only captain last October when she joined the agonizing list of Bates female athletes who have suffered a torn ACL in Murphy’s 14-year tenure.

“Since I’m the soccer coach and I saw Meg go down in a heap up at Middlebury, you go, ‘Man, there goes two seasons up in smoke.’ But you know, sometimes it makes the other players better,” Murphy said. “I think our three sophomores are much more advanced than they were a year ago.”

Those second-year hopefuls are bound to lose playing time when Coffin returns to the fray, but one look at the record book makes it difficult for anybody to object.

Coffin produced 17 points and 11 rebounds per night in 2005-06, leaving her only 38 points shy of 1,000 in her career. As a sophomore, she was a double-digit scorer on a team that earned Bates its first-ever No. 1 ranking the first week of February 2005.

“She’s a great player,” said Kostakis, a senior and three-year starter. “She’s just going to add.”

According to NCAA rules, Coffin’s hardship year doesn’t end until Dec. 15.

The Bobcats will meet Washington & Jefferson on their working vacation four days later, but their pre-flight schedule emphasizes how eager everyone is to celebrate Coffin’s return.

“She’s eligible the last day of our final exams. We’re practicing a half-hour after the last exam,” Murphy said.

Her arrival comes in plenty of time to bolster Bates during its New England Small College Athletic Conference schedule, but it won’t help the Bobcats (15-10 last year, ending a streak of three NCAA tourney appearances) with that compelling, early stretch.

Bates-Southern Maine has become a traditional first act to the Maine Division III season. The Bobcats routed the Huskies three years ago in Lewiston. USM returned the favor with a one-sided win in Gorham the next November, then got a head start on its holiday festivities with a 87-77 road triumph in Alumni Gym last year.

After an eight-day layoff, Bates hosts Husson before heading to the Norwich tournament, then travels to Farmington on Dec. 5.

“A lot of those teams are the best teams in the country,” Beckwith said. “It’s a really good start to the season.”

Bates hosts the second half of its home-and-home series with UMF on Jan. 6. The always anticipated double dip with Bowdoin isn’t until Feb. 5 and 16.

By then, the Bobcats figure to be a much bigger and better team, thanks to the rare benefits of a fifth-year senior.

“Some kids just have a presence,” Murphy said of Coffin. “I think the kids certainly respect what she’s accomplished in the past.”