Northwestern Lehigh girls lacrosse head coach Pam Colistra admits that year two as coach is much easier than year one. Even though last year was tough, the Lady Tigers still played for a district championship.

“It’s been a lot easier this season, absolutely,” Calistra said. “Now, we’ve got fluidity. We have our feet wet and have had the opportunity for all season training. It’s all optional, but we had good numbers show up for the work, so that tells me that they’re determined.”

Graduation cost Colistra about 130 goals with the loss of Olivia Costa, Olivia Spatz, Cara Thomas and Sydney Wright.

Players like Ella Collins, Gia Di Carlo, and Olivia Fagan will be called upon to step into bigger roles this season, while Mykaela Yanders will lead a group of young attackers and look to provide Northwestern with offensive power.

“We didn’t just lose four seniors,” said Colistra. “We lost four senior starters. We do have young players who can step in though. I’ve been involved with their growth over the last few years in the recreation league, so they know the standards and the expectations that are there and they have really taken on the challenge.”

While the team has a lot of work to do offensively, the defense is like the brick house built by one of the Three Little Pigs that stood up to the big, bad wolf.

Ashley Yacynych had a successful first season in goal and is back for her junior year. Haley Kerschner and Gracie Scheffler are reliable and provide leadership. Maddie Breidinger, Ella Filipovits and Olivia Greenawalt are also back to reprise their defensive roles this season.

“This is my last sports season in high school,” said Kerschner. “So I’m looking to have fun, but I’m also looking to win a bunch of game. I’m looking forward to getting back to the district championship and hopefully, win that this season.”

Just the fact that Colistra returned is a definite plus since the seniors on the team had different coaches in their first three seasons and now have Colistra back for a second run with the team.

“Coach Pam really brought this program to life,” said Scheffler. “I’m excited for this final season. We’ve been putting in a lot of work this offseason, even more than we did last year, so I feel like that’s definitely going to help us this year. We are always prepared and watch a lot of film and have good practices, so I’m excited about what we can do and how far we can go this season.”

Northwestern opened with a 17-3 win against Northampton.