We lost a lot of our defenders. But we have a lot of younger girls coming in that are really good and I think that they can keep the standards high and from what I’ve seen in practices we’ll be just fine.”

Audree Laska

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Park plays its home opener Thursday, April 17, hosting Roseville with a 7 p.m. start.

Park girls' lacrosse may be loaded for Bears this season. Or maybe loaded for Ponies, or Raiders night be the better term. In any case the 2025 Wolfpack team looks primed to make another strong run at conference and section honors after winning or sharing the conference title the last two seasons and welcoming back a host of standouts.

“We know we have three defenders we got to replace so that is where most of our focus is right now,” said Park head coach Scott Leonard, who enters his 19th and most likely last year directing the lacrosse team. “Losing those three is huge, but we’re figuring some things out, moving some girls around.”

Park will need to replace nine seniors from last season’s squad, including standouts such as defenders Sam Miller, Tori Henderson, Ava Reckinger and attacker Lily Newhouse. But an extremely strong cast of seniors returns, especially on offense, led by Madi Brinkman, the third leading girls' lacrosse scorer in Minnesota a year ago.

“Our goal for this year is to get conference champs again, definitely,” said Brinkman. “And I think a goal, a big goal for us too, is to try and make it to state and try and make that state run.”

The goal for Park girls' lacrosse this season are simple, to repeat as conference champions advance in section play to the finals and qualify for state. The Wolfpack were so close to going to state last season it hurt a little. This spring may be their year to make it.

“We’ve got a good group,” said coach Leonard. “They want to compete for conference championship again after winning it twice. This section is, I say it every year, there’s five teams in the section that any one of them can win it the last two years and the three seed is beating the five seed in the championship. We were the one seed last year but every one of our games against two, three, four and five we one- or two-goal games or overtime. Every one of them, there’s no sure things.”

Park rolled through the regular season a year ago, losing only at Stillwater and tying the Ponies again for the Suburban East Conference title last season, both teams with 8-1 records.

The Wolfpack seemed well positioned to qualify for the state tournament last spring. Park easily won its Section 3 quarterfinal, beating St. Paul/Two Rivers 15-5, but then the Wolfpack were stunned by Woodbury in a game at Cottage Grove, losing 8-7 in the Section 3 semifinals. Woodbury then lost 12-9 to Cretin-Derham Hall in the section finals, a team Park edged 8-7 during the regular season. Expect more close games this spring in the always tough SEC.

“I think just losing that super tight game makes us want it even more and we know we can do it,” said Brinkman. “So, we just have to push ourselves to know we can do it. I think our team has been looking really good this year and there’s a lot of hope that we can do it.”

Park has its top five scorers returning, led by Brinkman (72 goals, 8 assists). Brinkman averaged just under five goals a game.

Also back are Josie Leonard (33 goals, 13 assists), Maleah McMorrow (17 goals, 8 assists), Alaina Wright (12 goals, 3 assists) and Sidni Gitzen (11 goals, 1 assist).

“Up front is definitely our strength,” said coach Leonard. “Maturity. They’re not going to panic when they have the ball, end of the game on offense. Last year, even Sidni (Gitzen) our young sophomore last year scored the game-winning goal in fourth overtime versus East Ridge so they’re all been there on the offense.”

The Wolfpack will be aiming to be even more successful on offense than they were last season.

“I think this year not holding back as much and just full force, especially on the offensive end,” said Leonard.

On defense, Park welcomes back two strong goalies in Lauryn Ehrenstrom(66 saves, 65 goals against, 4.23 per game, with a .504 save rate last season) and Audree Laska (64 saves, 59 goals against, a .4.83 per game with a .520 save rate during the 2023 season. Laksa missed last season with an injury.

“I think that we’re a really strong team, both offensively and defensively,” said Laska. “We lost a lot of our defenders. But we have a lot of younger girls coming in that are really good and I think that they can keep the standards high and from what I’ve seen in practices we’ll be just fine.”

New starters who should step in on defense include Lila Krumrie, Olivia Czarnota and Emery Lettner.

Park has tied Stillwater for the Suburban East Conference title the last two season, both teams with 8-1 records in 2023 and 2024. The Wolfpack were 13-2 overall on the season.

Stillwater, however, is mentioned as the team to beat in the SEC this season. The Ponies were ranked No. 3in the preseason poll, while Cretin-Derham Hall was ranked No. 7.

Park plays its home opener Thursday, April 17, hosting Roseville with a 7 p.m. start.