Lakeland will open its season at Mahopac, whose head coach, Jess Ascencao, was a 2017 All-State player at Lakeland and part of three Lakeland state champion teams. She's one of several Section 1 coaches who'll face Sarsen and her team this season after formerly playing for her. The latest addition is new Rye head coach Valerie Perkins, a 2016 grad and all-state player, who won four state championships with Lakeland. Players going on to become coaches is another measure of success for a program that has long been one of the state's best. The formula behind that includes scheduling top competition during the regular season, which Lakeland has continued to do this year, in part accepting an invitation to play two games in a national invitational, which two-time defending state Class A champion Mamaroneck has also done. Whether playing top competition leads to Lakeland's 17th consecutive section title and also possibly a 14th state crown remains to be seen but it's expected to be, as it...