Montclair girls lacrosse falls short of ECT title

The Montclair girls lacrosse team gave it a game effort but just could not complete a comeback on Saturday in the Essex County Tournament title match.

The second-seeded Mounties (6-6) gave up four goals to top-seeded West Essex in the first five minutes of the ECT championship at Livingston High School.

But Montclair managed to tie the score at six with 90 seconds left in the first half. 

The Knights scored 10 seconds later to put the Mounties down by 7-6 at intermission.

In the second half, the Montclair offense stalled, dropping the ECT title, 12-6, to West Essex on May 6.

For Montclair girls lacrosse head coach Kim Kolodny said she would not use youth and inexperience as an excuse for falling to the Knights for the second successive year in the ECT title match. In the 2022 ECT final, the Mounties lost 8-7 to the Knights.

"Age had nothing to do with it," Kolodny said, who added that she was proud of her team for its comeback. "Young or not we didn’t come out as we hoped. We got ourselves in a hole, which veteran teams have done before, but we fought hard to get back in the game."

The Montclair coach added that the Mounties did not divert from the strategy after going down 4-0 to start the game.  

"Nothing changed in our game plan other than wanting and needing to produce when it mattered," Kolodny said. "We were able to do that in the first half, which brought us back, but unfortunately, we fell short in the second half."

Between halves the Mounties discussion was that the match could easily go their way after the slow start. 

"We told them that it was theirs for the taking and to calm their nerves," the Montclair head coach said. "Treat it just like any other game, and to play with confidence and have fun." 

Montclair had chances In the second half, but West Essex controlled the possession. And when the Mounties had their opportunities, West Essex goalie Jordan Cohen, who was in goal for the ECT final in 2022, would be a thorn in the side of Montclair as the Mounties went scoreless in the final 25 minutes. 

"The West Essex goalie is awesome," Kolodny said.

Montclair sophomore Olivia Nicoll led the Mounties in scoring with three goals, all that came in the first half. "Olivia was Olivia," Kolodny said. "She had one thing on her mind, and it was getting to the cage to get the game back in her team’s favor. She’s a gamer. And she played her heart out."

In addition to Nicoll's scoring, Montclair received a goal each from sophomore Aven Hodgson, junior Hannah Saraisky and senior Meghan Crane.

But West Essex's Cielle McInerney countered Nicoll and added to it with a game-high five goals, three of which came in the second half that turned out to be the difference.

Kolodny believes that the team's experience in the ECT final, especially at the start, will be valuable for later this season and the future.

"The main takeaway from this game for us is learning how to channel those nerves and create confidence from those nerves," she said. "We were lucky to be able to play and compete … on one of the biggest stages."

She added that the battle with West Essex will only help to use the “nerves” as a positive, especially when they start their drive for a North Group 4 final that begins on May 27.

"Our hard work got us there and our hard work will continue to get us far this season," Kolodny added. "Moving into states, we’ll continue to work on our confidence and recognize that those nerves are okay, but they cannot determine how we play. There are only a few more weeks left with this 2023 squad and we know how important that is to us. We want to end on a high note and that’s what we’ll work to achieve."

Montclair Girls Lacrosse Schedule
(Games at 4 p.m. unless noted)

May 11 at Caldwell
May 17 at Mountain Lakes
May 20 at Mendham, 10 a.m.
May 22 at West Essex, 4:30 p.m.