The Salisbury girls' basketball team reached heights last year that not many previous Lady Falcon squads had experienced.

Following a regular season that saw the Lady Falcons secure a 12-4 mark in the Colonial League (their most league wins since 2005), Salisbury rode that success to a District 11 Class AA title game appearance and a victory in the PIAA playoffs. Their win over Imhotep Charter in states ties for the second-longest run in program history.

With that success a little more than a year removed from their minds, this year's players are looking to experience another long playoff run in 2015. With five of their top seven players returning, including senior 1,000-point scorer Meagan Eripret, the Falcons have solid groundwork in place.

"We're very optimistic at this point," head coach Joe Mladosich said. "We scrimmaged against Northampton and Marian Catholic. Practice is going very well and the scrimmage went well. We'll scrimmage on Tuesday again [against Whitehall] and be ready for Friday."

The road ahead won't be easy, however, as the Lady Falcons are in the more comptetive West Division that includes Northwestern, Palmerton and Southern Lehigh. Northwestern and Southern Lehigh have both made the league playoffs in each of the past three seasons, and the two have combined for all of the last five conference championships.

"We have to start from scratch," Mladosich said. "The league is going to be tough. We're in the tougher division this year for girls basketball...Even though they will pick six teams this year for the league playoffs, it's going to be demanding. We're going to have to play very good right from the beginning of the season, and not wait towards the end like we did last year to make the playoffs."

Coming off a season in which Eripret (an all-league first-team selection in 2014) averaged 22.7 points per game, the senior is gearing up for what she hopes to be a memorable last go-around as the center of Salisbury's team.

"She's taking on more of a leadership role this year as a senior," Mladosich said. "Her and Kelly Gonoude have accepted the leadership roles, and they are both our captains. Meagan has played all summer, so she is very ready to go."

Besides Eripret, the Lady Falcons return Gonoude (7.0 points per game) and junior Lindsay Bauer (8.1 points per game), two starters at the guard positions a year ago. Both earned all-league honorable mention honors in 2014, and Mladosich believes their continued exposure at the varsity level can propel this team to another height.

Gonoude has been a starter since her sophomore season, while Bauer is entering her second-consecutive campaign starting alongside Gonoude in the backcourt.

"I would imagine if we get some outside shooting, then I think we could be really tough in our division and also in the Colonial League," Mladosich said. "Our guard play is key. If we can't get the ball into Meagan, she's not going to do us any good there.

"We think they are much more experienced, and we feel that they will play better."

With the departures of Kelly Garrigan and Amanda Rowlands to graduation, the Lady Falcons have voids to fill at both the forward and guard positions.

Rowlands started much of the season in 2014, but Jenna Keet was the first guard off the bench for Mladosich. Keet, who is now a senior, steps into a starting role this year for the Lady Falcons' three-guard attack. Senior forward Holly Szita was a vital part of Salisbury's game plan, too, and will also see an increase in minutes.

"We had like seven starters probably, so they played as much as Amanda and Kelly," Mladosich said. "Obviously they're going to be a very integral part of our program."

The biggest question mark for Mladosich is finding a second rotation of players that can spell the starters when needed. Juniors Kristen Bucchin and Sydney Utesch are two of the top candidates for those positions.

"We're hoping to find the sixth and seventh players that we had last year," Mladosich said. "We need some depth, and were looking for some of those juniors, and even some sophomores, to step up and be our sixth and seventh players."

The Lady Falcons get the season underway on Friday against Dieruff at 7 p.m. at Salisbury High School. They host Blue Mountain the next day at 3:30 p.m.