When a team wins its conference championship, and is one win shy of a district title, there is usually not much of a rebuilding process the following year.

That is true to an extent for the Parkland girls lacrosse team, which finished 2015 at 19-3 and earned last year’s Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship. The Trojans were runner-up in the District 11 playoffs to Southern Lehigh.

With a majority of the starting line up and rotation back, Parkland will hold high expectations on another deep run. But first the Trojans must figure out how to make up for the graduations of Sophie Castillo and Mackenzie Galli, both of whom are playing Division I lacrosse in college.

“We lost two major contributors in the midfield and offensive zone,” said second-year head coach Dawn Cipolla. “They did a lot for us and we are going to miss them. It is going to take a group effort to fill the void.”

Those two former Trojans combined for more than 75 percent of the Parkland offense. Luckily for Cipolla, she has a large group of seniors and upperclassmen ready to step forward and share some of the workload.

Sage Barnett, Alex Borrelli, Ana Emrick, Cathleen Gaffney, Lexi Rice and Sarah Stagaard have been in the program for four years now and will be the senior leaders looked upon to keep this team clicking on all cylinders.

Barnett and Borrelli have started multiple years at the back end of the defensive unit, which does not allow opposing offenses many clear opportunities on their net.

Emrick, Gaffney, Rice and Stagaard all have found the back of the nets during their careers, but all four will be asked to raise their scoring efforts if Parkland is to be successful.

Juniors Shannon Bushinsky, Brooke Cipolla and Jenny Zawada, along with sophomores Camryn Barnett and Abby Pope all played valuable varsity minutes last year and will be counted on to contribute again this year.

Cam Barnett and Pope burst onto the scene as freshmen, combining to score over 30 goals.

Some newcomers that will see the field this year include Mackenzie Galucy, Abby Giacobbe, Abby Gillespie, Kaityn Kuhns and Tori Millheim.

“As a team we want to be the best we can be,” said Cipolla. “We tell the girls for us to achieve this goal we don’t have to have a perfect game, but everyone has to have their best game on that day. As coaches we want to develop each girl to be the best player they can be and instill good work ethics, team work and the determination to know every game we left it all on the field. All of this will help them be better throughout their lives.”

Parkland opens up the regular season in defense of their title on Thursday, March 24 against Springfield-Delco at the new Parkland High School turf field.