The Cranston East girls lacrosse team started its season last week and is looking to make some noise in Division II after being elevated from Division III.

The Thunderbolts had a stellar season last year, finishing 10-2 and reaching the semifinals.

East returns six starters from last year’s team and is hoping to go on another run in the new division, despite the tough competition it will face.

“(Moving up a division) makes you learn quick, especially for the less experienced girls. Ball handling, field vision, it makes you learn those things quick. Division II is stiffer competition and the girls were competitive in the first two games,” said East coach Howard Chun.

The Bolts most recently fell to Rocky Hill 9-8 last Friday morning. Senior captain and Vassar College-commit Norah Flinn led the way with four goals while Lily Tillinghast added two. Alyssa Pereira and Kylie McCreavy also scored for East while goalie Maura Kitterick recorded 14 saves in the cage.

Defending Division III champion East Providence, who eliminated the Bolts from the playoffs last year, earned the 11-8 win on opening day. Tillinghast led East with four goals while Flinn and Pereira added two each. Kitterick finished with seven saves.

Although East has fared well in its first two starts in the higher division, Chun hopes that his team will continue to learn from its mistakes and improve each time out.

“We’re going to have to play at a higher level. In Division III, you could get away with making a mistake here and there. Now in Division II, those mistakes will come back to haunt you. In Division III, we would win games that were close. So far in Division II, we have lost our games and they’ve been close. That’s been the difference, getting those close wins. We didn’t have any expectations, but at least we know that we’ve been competitive which is a relief,” said Chun.

East faced Westerly on Wednesday evening, but the results were not available at press time. The Bolts will next host Bay View on Friday night.

Moving forward, Chun will be looking to his leaders, including Flinn, to help bring the younger players up to speed.

“We do have Norah, she’s a great leader and a great captain. Unlike DIII, you can’t just rely on one player, though, because these teams will double, triple team them. We have a great goalie, a good core, we have promise,” said Chun. “They just need experience. We have made some silly mistakes, we’ve played down, but no, we have to play up. But that’s high school. It’s going to be challenging, but we’ll be OK. We’ve played these teams tight, we haven’t been out of it.”