APEX — With an enviable amount of talent and eight players returning, the Apex girls’ lacrosse team set their sights on winning a second straight state championship this year from the season’s outset.

With the playoffs set to begin this week, the Cougars have done everything possible to put themselves in position to do just that.

Following a 17-11 win over Green Hope on Friday, the Cougars improved to 14-3 overall and 13-0 against teams in North Carolina.

“All teams aspire to win,” said senior attack Lisa Cook. “And the fact that we have such a good chance with all this talent, I think we’re really looking to play as well, if not better, than we did last year.”

Apex has, without a doubt, done that. In five meetings against Charlotte Catholic, East Chapel Hill and Green Hope, the second-, third- and fourth-ranked teams in the state’s current LaxPower.com rankings, the No. 1 Cougars are 5-0 and have outscored those three teams 91-40.

Apex’s only three losses of the year were to out-of-state teams. The Cougars fell 14-10 to Alexandria (Va.) Bishop Ireton in March. On their spring break trip to Georgia, they won their opener 16-6 over Walton before losing to Chattahoochee and Milton by identical 14-13 margins.

The Cougars’ success begins with their offense. With speed in the midfield, Apex is superb in transition. When they have to slow it down, the Cougars move the ball around quickly, keeping defenses unbalanced and allowing players off the ball to find alleys to cut toward the net.

“We move the ball, try to find the open player and keep pushing it,” said Apex coach Jessica Pinneo, the N.C. High School Women’s Lacrosse Association’s coach of the year in 2007. “That’s been our game this year. Transition is our strength, and we just push it. We have fast girls that can do it and do it the entire game.”

The Cougars have outscored their opponents 276-117 this season and have won 11 games by 10 goals or more.

They have five players who have scored at least 20 goals and two with more than 50.

Senior Sasha Vedock leads the way with 83 goals and 23 assists. She’s scored at least twice in every game to date and she’s had at least five goals on 10 occasions.

Slick with the stick and fast on her feet, Vedock relies on her speed to get to the goal. On one of her five goals against Green Hope on Friday, she raced by three defenders, then faked her way around a fourth before slinging the ball into the lower left-hand corner of the goal.

If defenses focus on Vedock, Cawley Bromley (51 goals), Courtney McLaughlin (39 goals), Sarah Fellows (36 goals) or Cook (21 goals) are among the top threats to punish the opposition.

But Apex has weapons all over the field. In a 15-1 win against Cary earlier in the season, 13 different players scored a goal.

“That’s exactly how an offense needs to be,” Pinneo said. “You try to faceguard somebody, then someone else steps up. It’s really hard when people all over the field can score, and that really speaks to our offense.”

And because Apex is so strong offensively, that keeps the pressure of its defense, which features only one returner, Elizabeth Szep, from last season. Bethany Shenberger also returned as the goalkeeper. When Apex loses the ball in its end, its attack and midfielders are all over the place working to get it back before the defense can clear the zone.

All that has made Apex successful this season are the same things it did last year.

But this year, there is one difference.

Last year, Apex was chasing the top teams, whereas this year, it is the top team that everyone is coming after.

The Cougars have handled it well, Pinneo said, largely because they know exactly how their opponents feel. A year ago, they felt the same way and they were taking their best shot at the likes of Green Hope and East Chapel Hill.

Remembering that and not letting all the success affect them is what will drive them throughout the course of the upcoming postseason, perhaps to another state championship.

“A lot of us girls want another ring,” McLaughlin said. “But we can’t let our heads get too big. We work really hard for what we want, and I think we can pull it off if we continue to work hard.”