Nearly every high school team heads into each season needing to replace graduates who were important to the team a year earlier. The challenge will be no different for the Salisbury girls basketball team this upcoming winter.

After going 13-12 last season and qualifying for both the Colonial League and District 11 tournaments, the Lady Falcons will have a new look this season.

Leading scorer from last season Caylin Meikrantz (13.5 points per game) is one of six seniors that graduated.

Kyra Bruns and Paige Nicholas were regular rotation players for the Falcons last season who are no longer available. Holly Bruns, Haley Szita and Noemi VonHolden were the other lost seniors.

“We return five of the top eight players from a year ago,” Mladosich said. “Our first two weeks of practice have gone well. Everyone remains optimistic.”

A season ago, the Lady Falcons were one of the six Colonial League teams to qualify for the postseason tournament. They dropped a close contest to heavily-favored Bangor in the quarterfinals by one point.

Then a couple of days later, Salisbury’s season ended in the district quarterfinals against top-seeded St. Basil after the Lady Falcons downed Palisades in the first round.

However, despite the losses of many key pieces to last season’s puzzle, this group also has the talent to potentially make another postseason run.

Senior Sarah McGee, who finished second on the team with 12.4 points per game last season, is the leader for the Lady Falcons in 2018. But she’s accompanied by a strong supporting cast as well.

Fellow seniors Alicia Burkhardt and Kelly Gardus figure to play key roles, as do juniors Erica Holden and Caitlin Sciala and sophomore Olivia Hoeing.

“Our goals remain the same: to advance to league and district playoffs,” Mladosich said.

Also joining the Lady Falcons is a bunch of newcomers who could potentially make an impact. Those include: senior Anna Bishop, senior Olivia Dragovits, junior Peyton Stauffer, junior Katie Rutt, junior Alison Mizgerd, junior Taliah Martinez and sophomore Madison Bettuccio.

If Salisbury does have hopes of returning to postseason play, it’ll have to change its style of play to a faster one. Meikrantz’ team-leading 49 3-pointers are no longer in the Lady Falcons’ holster, so they’ll likely rely on pushing the tempo in transition more in 2017.

“We will need to play faster in hopes of generating more offense,” Mladosich said. “[We will] need to play better defense and rebound.”

Salisbury travels to Dieruff this Friday to open its season with a 7 p.m. tipoff, followed by a trip to Blue Mountain on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Falcons open their league slate against Bangor next Tuesday.