The Northwestern girls basketball team enjoyed a lot of success in 2012, but has no hardware to show from it.

Head coach Chris Deutsch is working to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself this winter.

"Our goal is to win the Colonial League championship," said Deutsch. "That is the top goal. We got to the finals last year so this year our goal is to get there and win it, definitely. We also want to make a better run in districts to hopefully qualify for states as well.

"Expectations are definitely high."

The Lady Tigers finished the 2012 regular season boasting a 21-1 record, but lost to Southern Lehigh in the Colonial League championship and got upset by North Schuylkill in the District 11 Class AAA quarterfinal, which ended Northwestern's 2012 campaign.

Deutsch, who is entering his 11th season on the Northwestern bench, will be without Sara Jones, the program's all-time leading scorer, and Kaleen Suter, as both graduated in the spring. Jones is continuing her basketball career at the Naval Academy.

Despite losing two big contributors from 2012, there are also a lot of returners from last year's squad that have tremendous experience. There are three returning starters in juniors Sabrina Mertz and Sarah Segan, along with senior Trista Cunningham.

Many key reserves are back for 2013 as well. A few will find the starting lineup by opening night in sophomores Erika Thomas and Megan Landrigan and junior Lauren Anderson.

A few returning players that will get increased minutes this season are seniors Kylee Bennett and Erynn Day and sophomore Mikaela Koening.

"Health is key for us," Deutsch said. "If we can stay healthy, that will be important. Trusting each other on the basketball court is another one. Lastly, being able to trust your teammate with everyone accepting their role on the court is big with me. Everyone has to be willing to accept their roles"

Believing that his team is capable of staying in the championship conversation, Deutsch sees some positives and negatives with this squad.

"One of the positives is that we have girls returning with big-game experience," he said. "I think that will be big for us. Eight of the 14 girls suiting up for varsity this year are freshmen or sophomores. So we do have a young group in that sense, but they have experience. I think we are a very athletic and quick team as well."

"One concern is our lack of size. We will play teams bigger than us and how we handle that will be interesting.

"We are a different team than last year and we will be going through some growing pains, but hopefully we will be where we want to be."

Deutsch and his coaching staff are excited for this upcoming season as the head coach described this group as "very coachable." He expects a lot from his girls on the court and they all expect to be fighting for hardware this postseason.