Several members of the 2023 Montclair Kimberley girls lacrosse team suffered through a season two years ago in which they went 0-for-3 in tournament finals.
Some of those players can now rest comfortably after capturing a second title for this season on Friday night.
The Cougars added the Non-Public B state title to their Prep B tournament championship after a dominating second half to defeat Holy Spirit, 14-8, on June 9 at Hunterdon Central. MKA outscored the Spartans, 8-5, in the second half and the Cougars finished with a 16-7 record.
“I think it was so well deserved going from not winning any championships to winning two,” said Montclair Kimberley junior goalie Orly Sedransk, who made nine saves in the game and stymied a powerful Holy Spirit offense.
Caroline Murphy, one of the several seniors on the 2023 Cougars team, had a little bit of mixed feelings since it was her last game on the field and her last time playing with her twin freshmen sisters, Shea and Maggie Murphy.
“It is definitely bittersweet, more sweet than bitter,” Caroline Murphy said after winning the state title. “For me it has been three plus years. It has just been rewarding and a long time coming.”
The three Murphy sisters contributed extensively on the field, from taking the draws to the score sheet. Caroline had three goals, and Shea and Maggie each had two.
Leading the way on offense was junior Aeryn Curren, the team’s leading scorer this season, who had a game-high five goals.
Curren recalled the 2021 season: “It was my freshman year and we made it to three championships. Not winning those games, the freshman year was hard.”
She added that defeating Princeton Day, 10-9, on May 21 to win the Prep B tournament title gave the Cougars confidence heading into the state tournament.
“We have been working so hard to get to that championship,” Curresaid n about getting the monkey off their back after also losing last season in the Prep B final, “We had nothing to lose and left everything on the field” against Holy Spirit.
In the state final against Holy Spirit, Montclair Kimberley controlled most of the game and the Spartans tied the Cougars only once, at 2-2 five minutes into the final.
One of the biggest moments in the match might have come 10 minutes into the second half.
Shea Murphy with an assist from Curren had given the Cougars an 8-4 lead five minutes into the second half.
But in the next five minutes, the Montclair Kimberley lead shrunk to two, 9-7 as Cougars head coach Chelsea Goss called a timeout.
“I think we just needed to regroup and remember to be aggressive on the draw,” Caroline Murphy said about the talk in the timeout. “And get back to the fundamentals in the ground balls and passes. We just got caught up in the complex stuff.
The Cougars took their head coach’s words to heart as the combination of all the Murphy sisters at the faceoff and Curren picking up ground balls or the passes off the faceoff worked like clockwork.
In the next five minutes, Montclair Kimberley scored three goals, one each from Curren, Shea Murphy and freshman Maddie Polanskyj, that gave the Cougars breathing room and a 12-7 lead with nine minutes remaining in the final.
In all, Montclair Kimberley scored five unanswered goals after the timeout to hand the Cougars a 14-7 lead with six minutes left before getting that first state title.
Defensively, Montclair Kimberley put the clamps on Holy Spirit’s top offensive producers, Hanna Watson, Brielle Soltys and Maddie Abbott, who had combined for 153 goals coming into the final.
But led by Sedransk along with defenders Ava Moore (junior), Debbie Giddens (sophomore), Sophia Eichman (senior) and Lindsay Driever (senior), they limited the high-scoring Holy Spirit threesome to only four goals.
“We knew their three best goal players and definitely had an eye on them,” Sedransk said. “They have powerful shots. They were fast and we covered them the best we could.”
