Selena Lasota is back where she is happiest – playing lacrosse.

The junior attacker has returned to No. 13 Northwestern after the toughest year of her life.

“In the beginning, it was tough,” said Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. “You get back and you’re trying to get back in the groove and get your confidence back after being out so long. Now, having a couple games under your belt, it’s pretty exciting to see her settling in, the team settling in and we’re excited for the challenge Saturday when we play Stony Brook. It’ll be a great test for us. If we’re going to be great this year, we have to be great as a unit. For Selena, it’s finding where she can make an impact. She’s doing that and it’s a cool thing to watch.”

Lasota left the fourth game of last year – an overtime loss at USC – with a stress fracture in her right foot and never played the rest of the spring. She was still out for Team Canada for the World Cup in July. On top of it, there were family challenges, but she’d most like to talk lacrosse.

“I’ve had lots of tough things in my life,” Lasota said. “I think it all happened last year.”

Lasota was hardened by the experiences, though it seems especially cruel to take away her sanctuary. For eight months, she could only be a fan.

“I really learned that lacrosse is a huge part of my life,” Lasota said. “I’ve played it ever since I was a kid. Maybe the hardest thing with that was being pretty far away from home, and I just learned I have to stay true to my roots and do what I do as a person to stay grounded, but also let lacrosse help me in that way. Throughout my injury, I did lean on my stick and play wall ball to try to get through some times.

“The biggest thing I learned was I really love lacrosse. I need it. I need it as much as I need to be connected back home with my family.”

Lasota came a long way to join Northwestern four years ago. She is the first player from Canada and first of Aboriginal or Native American decent to come to Northwestern. She knew nothing of its history, including the Wildcats’ seven national championships, when she was first recruited.

“There’s so much talent at home that needs to be exposed,” Lasota said. “Personally, I never knew what the world was about. I was planning to go see it in other terms. It opened my eyes to education. I’m glad to have that to give to other Canadian players.”

Fellow countrywoman and friend Danita Stroup, whose father coached Lasota growing up, joined her a year later. Lasota is a member of the Katzie First Nation, but grew up on the east coast of Vancouver Island in Campbell River, British Columbia.

“We had nice sunsets and trees,” Lasota said.

There wasn’t much else, and her uncomplicated life helped to formulate an active lifestyle and good work ethic. Her mother owns hair salons. Her father is a fisherman who occasionally took Lasota and her older brother on fishing trips.

“They were long, hard days,” Lasota recalled.

She was toughened too by playing box lacrosse with boys until she was 16 because there weren’t any local girls teams. In her first-ever field lacrosse experience, she wowed then-Northwestern assistant coach Danielle Spencer at the President’s Cup in Florida, about as far from home as Lasota went to play lacrosse, and two years later, she introduced her unique skillset to Division I.

“I really was confident in what I was being told from the coaches and my role on the field,” Lasota said. “I continued to push forward and work on my shooting. I had to be confident in the preparation and when we got on the field and when it was game time to enjoy it and have fun.”

In 2015, she was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Lacrosse Magazine Rookie of the Year and an IWLCA second-team All-American pick after setting the Northwestern freshman record with 69 goals to go with nine assists. Grossly overlooked for her defensive skills, she also led the Wildcats with 24 caused turnovers.

If this past year was the valley for Lasota, what followed in the summer after her freshman year was the peak. She raised more eyebrows and expectations as MVP after scoring five points in the gold medal game to lead Team Canada past Team USA in a stunning upset for the Under-19 World Championship title.

“Coming off of the World Cup was a bit different,” Lasota said. “I was trying to stay focused. I tried to put that away and focus back on Northwestern lacrosse. I don’t think I was looking back on the past too much, whether that was freshman year or Team Canada. I was ready for sophomore year.”

She jumped to No. 2 on the team in draw controls with 48 and set a career high in assists with 17, while her scoring slipped to a mere 50 goals. She was All-Big Ten, but beyond that, drew only regional accolades from the IWLCA.

Lasota came back on the Tewaaraton watch list as a junior and matched expectations in a fast start with five points apiece against Notre Dame and USC, but the latter effort was her last of 2017.

Initially, she expected to miss eight or nine weeks with the possibility of returning for the postseason, but her return was pushed back indefinitely following subsequent tests.

“I went crazy,” Lasota said. “I think everybody would have. Everybody does lean on the support. I wanted to support my teammates in a new role, and I had to rehab for my foot and all of that. I think I had a little day-to-day schedule that helped me out.”

She poured her time into studies for her human development and psychological services major, and into rehabbing her foot. She ran on an underwater treadmill and graduated to the Alter-G treadmill. Rehab wasn’t quite as arduous as after her first significant injury – a torn ACL in seventh grade that was operated on as she entered eighth grade – but it took longer than she wanted. Back home last summer, she did light jogging under the supervision of a trainer, but it was devastating to find out she wasn’t ready to play in the World Cup with Team Canada.

“They’re such a fun group of girls,” Lasota said. “I’d be belly laughing all the time. From the coaches down, it is a tell-all of how we like to play and have fun and be happy and just play the game. And the competition at the World Cup is phenomenal. I would have loved to go up against the best players in the world.”

Lasota was in constant contact with the team until they flew overseas. Her frustration at being unable to join them was so much that she then asked to be removed from their team group chat.

“My heart was with them,” Lasota said. “It was just lame.”

Lasota didn’t rejoin her Northwestern teammates on the field until their final fall weekend. She has been relishing every chance since then.

“She has a higher level of appreciation for every opportunity on the field,” Amonte Hiller said. “She has a different perspective because she was forced to the sideline.”

It’s a bonus for Northwestern to have her again. They averaged just four goals per game in back-to-back losses following her injury last year before they managed to compensate. They fell to 79th in scoring offense. With Lasota back, the Wildcats are 26th in scoring offense this year, and she is leading the Big Ten and sixth in the country in points.

“The biggest thing is that the other team really has to worry about her,” Amonte Hiller said. “When you have a player like that, they have to worry about her.”

Lasota was extra motivated when Northwestern took on USC again on Saturday, and she had to try to calm herself down before it. Scoreless in the first half, she keyed a late five-goal run with three of her own, including the tying goal in the 9-5 win. The win over USC marked coming full circle from her injury to return, but it’s not her fondest moment at Northwestern.

“I don’t think I have one,” Lasota said. “I have two more years at Northwestern and I’m looking forward to those two years.”

Lasota’s focus now is helping the team return to center stage. Northwestern moved up two spots with the win over USC, and would climb further Saturday with a win over No. 1 Stony Brook, the team that ended their season last year in the NCAA second round. The Wildcats had not been past the NCAA tournament quarterfinals in Lasota’s career.

“I think we all want it, and we’d all like to see Northwestern get back to being the top program in the country,” Lasota said. “We know what it takes. I think every second of the day about that.”

To get Northwestern back there, it will take players like Selena Lasota. Her return has everyone in Evanston, Ill., happy.

“I feel very confident coming back,” Lasota said. “I’m feeling good. It’s awesome to be playing lacrosse again.”