We go bold every year. Some years are bolder than others.

That’s the excitement we have for each budding season. With the 2022 Division I women’s lacrosse season officially one week away from beginning, there are endless possible outcomes that could dictate the way we look back on the spring.

We’re getting our predictions in now before the action gets under way.

LAUREN GILBERT BREAKS CENTURY MARK

Losing Izzy Scane for the season is devastating, but Northwestern is still in good shape after handing the keys of the attack to Lauren Gilbert. A graduate student from Oregon, Gilbert scored 66 goals as the No. 2 scoring option behind Scane, who poured in 98 goals.

Scane was a one-woman wrecking crew in times of need, but people often overlook the contributions of Gilbert. With Erin Coykendall poised to take on a more significant role on offense as a primary distributor, Gilbert could truly thrive on a Northwestern offense that routinely ranks at or near the top of the nation in scoring.

Because someone has to do the scoring for Northwestern, expect Gilbert to be busy. The 100-goal plateau is still not one that’s reached often, but it’s been at least challenged every season in recent memory. Look for Gilbert to take a crack at it.

CHARLOTTE NORTH BECOMES ALL-TIME GOALS LEADER

OK, sure. Maybe this isn’t incredibly bold. It’s probably more of a foregone conclusion.

Charlotte North needs just 75 goals to tie Courtney Murphy for the Division I goals record. Murphy scored 341 goals from 2014-18 at Stony Brook, and North embarks on the 2022 season with 266.

After scoring 102 goals in 2021 — a mark that topped Murphy for the single-season record — North is still Option 1 on the Boston College attack. With Jenn Medjid and Belle Smith around to take pressure off her, North shouldn’t have much of a problem producing yet again.

PRINCETON RUNS TABLE IN IVY LEAGUE

We haven’t seen the Ivy League in full since March 2020. That, of course, makes it difficult to tell just what we’re going to get. But if uncertainty is the trend, then look to Princeton has the type of team that can buck the trend.

The Tigers return a significant portion of the team we last saw in 2020 after a calculated decision by 19 players to take leave last year. And in Chris Sailer’s final season with the team, there’s even more added motivation.

No team has gone undefeated in Ivy League play since the Tigers did so in 2015. Penn is mostly an unknown, as is Dartmouth, and it’s been some time since Cornell, Harvard and Columbia have been true competitors in the league.

“Chris Sailer is retiring. They’re going to play inspired,” one rival coach said. “It’s going to be a tough situation for the rest of the league. It’s theirs to lose.”

MADDIE JENNER SETS SINGLE-SEASON DRAW MARK

The Duke offense starts and stops with Maddie Jenner, a 6-foot-2 force inside the draw circle. She controlled 187 draws in 2021 and has 371 for her career, putting her 141 away from tying her sister Olivia for Duke’s career mark. With another season of more than 89 draws won, a Jenner will hold the top six single-season draw marks for Duke. Talk about a family affair.

But we’re thinking bigger for this prediction. Hence the “bold” sentiment in the title. Jenner will break Hailey Wagner’s 2019 record of controlling 224 draws in 18 games.

Only five players (Wagner, Kayla Treanor, Jessica Karwacki, Caitlyn Petro and Hannah Murphy) have ever won 200 draws in a season, emphasizing just how difficult it is. And Jenner’s path to doing so won’t be easy. In the ACC alone, Jenner will have to go through the likes of Charlotte North and Ally Mastroianni. But few in the nation can match Jenner’s size and skill.

A SYRACUSE TEWAARATON FINALIST ISN’T HAWRYSCHUK

Emily Hawryschuk’s return to the Syracuse attack will be a huge boon, especially after news of Emma Ward’s season-ending lower leg injury. But a player who exploded in her stead is the one who will be standing as a Tewaaraton Award finalist in 2022.

Meaghan Tyrrell was a force to be reckoned with, totaling 68 goals and 44 assists. That was largely done on an offense missing Hawryschuk and eventually Megan Carney, who also tore her ACL and is expected back this spring.

With Hawryschuk healthy, defenses will naturally gravitate toward her, thus leaving Tyrrell with more space to operate. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Tyrrell threaten the national points lead for this reason.

The complete opposite could be true, and Syracuse might not have anyone on the Tewaaraton stage. And that’s not a diss to the program. Nobody quite knows what the Syracuse offense will look like under Kayla Treanor, and with such an enviable wealth of talented options, the offense could prove to be a juggernaut fueled by the sum of its parts.