It is difficult to gauge how successful the Lady Falcons may have been last season because they were grounded by myriad injuries that pushed them well off course.

Officially, Salisbury finished 6-11 overall and 2-10 in the Colonial League and missed out on a postseason spot in a season that did see some bright spots from the team. If there is any silver lining, injuries did give some opportunities to other players to gain varsity experience, which is never a bad thing.

It’s easy to forget that the team opened with a 4-3 record before the injury bug started to bite.

Success often starts with defense and last season, the Falcons had senior Hannah Kamp in goal, and she went out with a bang, collecting over 300 saves last season alone and finishing with nearly 750 career saves.

Kamp, along with senior classmates Angela Bitar and Mikayla Lighting all graduated, leaving much of the young core of the team to show how much they have developed over the past year.

In front of Kamp, the defense fought through injuries to become a cohesive group that has a lot of talent and the potential to help lead Salisbury. Senior Alex Miller, who could move to goal keeper this season, and junior Shyann Cortes are both back and look to put injuries behind them to solidify the defense. Senior Gianna Cilibretti also returns as does junior Gabi Pena, who was a consistent defensive force for the Falcons in 2022.

Offensively, Salisbury did not get its first goal against a Colonial League opponent until the third game of the season, but it was a big one that gave the Falcons a 1-0 win over Wilson. The game-winning goal came from freshman Madison Reis, who went on to prove herself ready for varsity, scoring 13 goals.

Reis was not the only member of the freshman class to standout as midfielders Autumn Evans and Kaitlyn Neuhs also took advantage of time on the field, which will help the Salisbury offense this season.

The schedule also had some tough games packaged toward the end of the year with games against Moravian Academy and Southern Lehigh finishing up the league portion of the schedule.

By that point, injuries had taken their toll, but Salisbury continued to fight through adversity, giving Southern Lehigh a battle before the Lady Spartans were able to flex their muscles and get the win.

Just as the schedule ended with a tough stretch last season, it starts with one this season. The schedule has Salisbury opening at Palmerton before hosting Saucon Valley. Palmerton was the top seed and eventual Colonial League champion, while the Panthers fell to the Bombers in the semifinals of league playoffs. Their next league opponent is Bangor, who finished at 6-6 in the Colonial League last season.

The first key for Salisbury is to hope for better health.

After that, it is just a matter of young players building on what they were able to do last season while they were in a tough situation and playing short-handed.