For a moment during the fall, it would have been fair for Maddie Cary to wonder whether her senior season of women's lacrosse would even happen. But she and her Franklin teammates kept the faith.

"We were kind of scrambling, trying just to figure out what it meant for us," Cary said. "But truly, at the heart of our team, we never really lost the spirit of what we had and just used it to grow closer and pick each other up."

Now, with a turbulent offseason behind them, the Grizzlies are eager to get the 2026 campaign going under first-year coach Morgan Krause.

Though Krause came to Franklin as an assistant volleyball coach and has never played lacrosse, the transition has been a smooth one and the players' enthusiasm has been notable from the moment preseason practices began. Numbers are back up — the current 17-player roster is the Grizzlies' largest in three years — and so is morale.

"Everyone has bought into what we're trying to do," Krause said. "Even from the first practice, there wasn't anyone who was scared to do something or really hesitant or trying to fight back; everyone just wants to be a part of it and get better."

"There's an energy that I've never seen in all of my four years," Cary agreed. "I've never been a part of a practice that's been run so efficiently, and there's a lot of growth and change in the program that I think we really need."

Franklin should have some continuity on offense, where 100% of the scoring returns. Leading the way are juniors Addie Whitman, who tallied a team-leading 27 goals, and Abby Moore, who totaled 12 goals and four assists. Also back in the fold are junior Claire Ecenbarger (six goals and a team-leading five assists), sophomore Aubrey Small (seven goals) and junior Avery Tomlinson (three goals).

Seniors Cary and Gabby Cunningham, as well as junior Maggie Matthews, return as starters on defense. Goalkeeping duties will be handled by a pair of newcomers in freshman Sophie Taylor and sophomore Kelsey Moran.

Those veterans figure to get help from an influx of new players, several of them coming over from other sports — just like Krause, who was a multi-sport athlete growing up. Cary says that those athletic backgrounds have helped both Krause and the rookies on the field pick things up quickly.

"Someone could come and watch our practice, and they would not know that Coach Morgan didn't play the sport or hasn't been coaching for X amount of years," Cary said. "She's already picking up on the lacrosse knowledge, but having the sports IQ, it really is making all the difference."

"A lot of things in basketball actually translate to lacrosse," Krause added, "so I feel a lot more confident going in than I originally thought."

Helping to smooth Krause's transition is assistant coach Chloe May, who founded the girls lacrosse program at nearby Southport High School and brings both playing and coaching experience to Franklin.

"She has so much lacrosse knowledge, so she just teaches me so much," Krause said of May. "She's instilling a lot of technical things into these girls; I could see us making a huge jump this year just based off of that."

Making a jump in the win column is a realistic goal after the Grizzlies went 1-9 last spring and 2-8 in 2024. But more than anything, Krause and her players are looking to lay a strong foundation that the program can build upon as it gets set to move into the Ohio Athletic Conference next year as an affiliate member.

Progress has already been made on that front.

"We did the same thing with volleyball," Krause said. "We built the culture up from nothing to something where people want to come here and play and want to be successful — and that's what I really want to do with lacrosse. Obviously it's going to take time, but the more I'm learning and understanding, and the more that these girls are getting better, I think we're going to get to that point."

"We're motivated in a new way, and we're being challenged in a new way," Cary added, "and the girls are — we're all competitive, we're all athletes, and we are feeding off of that, and I think that we're really thriving on a new type of motivation and new drills that challenge us. We're trying to be super open-minded to everything, and we're seeing the benefits of that immediately."