Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes YSU sophomore forward Sophia Gregory battles in the post with Green Bay’s Jasmine Kondrakiewicz during a Horizon League game last season at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.

YOUNGSTOWN — Melissa Jackson isn’t shying away from how Youngstown State plans to play this season, especially on the offensive end of the floor.

“I’m going to feed the posts and pound it inside until somebody stops us,” the Penguins’ second-year head coach said when YSU began official practices at the end of September.

With the depth and talent that the Penguins return at forward this season, it’s easy to see why Jackson has adopted that approach.

“Our strength is our posts, and we gotta be able to feed our posts and get the ball inside so that we can execute that effectively,” Jackson said last week.

A year ago, YSU expected to have four forwards heading into the season. But, less than a month in and the Penguins were down to two after Ashlynn Van Tassell and Sarah Baker sustained season-ending injuries.

That put the brunt of the responsibility in the post on Faith Burch and Sophia Gregory, who as a freshman was thrust into the fire sooner than planned.

The most experienced of the group, Burch took charge and stepped into a leadership role. She ended up playing in 26 games last season, while starting 22, and she averaged 6.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.

“Honestly, it just comes with chemistry and then knowing what each other likes to do on offense and especially defense, too,” Burch said. “It’s a lot of communication, and Coach (Jackson) does a really good job of putting each player in a spot where they can be really successful.”

Gregory, however, while working through some growing pains at first, began to emerge as a star in her first season of college basketball. She finished the season averaging 10.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, while leading all conference freshmen in points, rebounds, blocks and steals en route to being named Horizon League Freshman of the Year.

Both Burch and Gregory are back in the post for the Penguins this season, while Van Tassell and Baker are healthy again. The Penguins also added Cleveland State transfer Paulina Hernandez to the post rotation in the offseason.

“It’s very nice to have everyone back strong again,” Gregory said. “Having two upperclassmen is a big deal with their experience. Then the three underclassmen, we work very well off the upperclassmen. So I’m excited to have everyone back.”

With a rotation of five players to use at both center and power forward, the Penguins are bigger, deeper, more talented and more versatile than they’ve ever been.

“It’s definitely been great because we have so many people who can do so many different things,” Baker said. “We have posts who can shoot, and I feel like that will help open up a lot of things for the rest of our team. Then I think we have a lot of great passers too. So I think we’ll be really hard to guard because we’re so versatile. I feel like there’s a lot of things that teams will have to worry about with our post group and everybody else too.”

After averaging 7.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game and winning conference Freshman of the Week three times in the first five weeks of the season, Baker looked to be on pace to win Freshman of the Year honors herself before the injury last year.

This season, she’s hoping to pick up right where she left off.

“It was definitely a lot of learning to do again because I’ve never had that big of a break before from basketball,” Baker said. “It’s been a lot, but I think I’m finally starting to get into the groove of things again.”

Hernandez played sparingly in her first two years with the Vikings, only averaging about five minutes per game. But she’s likely to see her role increase with the Penguins.

Jackson said Hernandez will play at the No. 5 spot at center, but has a 3-point shot in her arsenal that can help stretch the floor.

“She has unbelievable 3-point shooting range, as well as a low block presence,” Jackson said.

After having to play the No. 5 spot last year because of the injuries, Gregory has moved to the No. 4 spot this season, where YSU hopes to take full advantage of her athleticism and passing ability. Then Burch will look to continue to provide the Penguins with a boost with her defense and rebounding as well.

“(Gregory) is bringing the ball up in transition. She’s kind of like a point forward at times,” Jackson said. “We’ve expanded her game out to three, and I think she’s very comfortable shooting the three right now. She’s a really versatile type of post that can do a lot of different things. Then Faith is an unbelievable offensive rebounder and can come in and be really disruptive there, as well as with her athleticism on the low block.”