Orono girls lacrosse squad looking to build momentum after historic 2025 season
The Orono girls lacrosse team is coming off a historic season, making it to the state tournament for the first time. Now, they're working toward going again.
"[It] definitely, I think, motivates people even more because they know what we could have and have gotten so close," Dylan Collins, senior midfielder, said.
A first taste of the tournament was enough to leave them hungry for more.
"They're one of the best teams in the state and they have a lot of potential," head coach Jane Kolar said.
In just a few years, the Spartans' program has grown exponentially, with more players committing to lacrosse as their year-round sport. Collins and Layla Nick, a junior midfielder, are two of them.
"We went from being a team just playing to have fun to a team where we want to win and play for a reason," Collins said.
Collins and Nick have been top goal scorers in the state. The former is a Division I commit to Furman University and already has 34 goals this season.
Nick is the first Minnesotan to commit to the two-time national champions, Boston College. She racked up 97 goals last season, has 26 so far this year and it's still early.
The two credit Kolar for turning the program around.
"She's definitely made it a competitive program, wanting to build a great family and community," Nick said. "Definitely seen the growth. We went from a below-50 team to now just crushing it over a 12 and 3 record last year, so she's definitely helped grow that competitiveness in this program."
"When we came in, we were warned to lower our expectations ... but we didn't really settle with that and we knew we could do a lot more," Kolar said.
In Kolar's four years at the helm, she's seen more girls join lacrosse, and this season is the first year they've expanded to three teams — B squad, junior varsity and varsity.
"We welcome girls that want to try it for the first time. We try and recruit from hockey and basketball, and ultimately we just built a great culture, and built their self-confidence and it paid off," Kolar said.
Orono is a small example of how much lacrosse has grown in Minnesota. It became a sanctioned sport in 2007 with just a few teams. Now there are 97 teams and they are three teams away from having multiple sections and classes.