By EDWARD KENSIK
For Montclair Local
It’s supposed to be a big season for the Montclair Kimberley girls lacrosse season, but the Lady Cougars might have a little less practice time going into the start of the 2021 spring season.
Head coach Chelsea Intrabartola and her charges recently learned the program would be placed under quarantine until April 20. Montclair Kimberley Academy athletic director Todd Smith said that, this week that a player tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“The timing is not great and we’ll unfortunately miss our pre-season and our opening two scrimmages,” Smith said
That means the MKA girls lacrosse team might be a little rusty heading into its season opener at Cedar Grove on April 23, at 4:30 p.m.
It’s been a little less than two years since MKA and all other New Jersey lacrosse programs have hit the field. MKA and the rest of the lacrosse teams started practices on April 1. COVID-19 shut down all of the spring sports in the spring of 2020.
But despite the pause, Intrabartola believes her team will be ready for the opener.
“We’re excited to get our season back on track next week when we return to school,” said the MKA coach. “The team is looking forward to getting back out on the field together and has been hard at work preparing for our season opener.”
Intrabartola has several ingredients from a team that made it to the 2019 Essex County Final, where the team lost Glen Ridge. The 2019 team also took home the Prep B Tournament title.
Coming into this season, the Lady Cougars are stacked with the return of senior Taylor Everson. Everson was an All Super Essex Conference American first team player as a sophomore in 2019 after leading the Lady Cougars in goals (79), assists (26) and points (105).
And there are also a couple of other seniors in Katie Hipp and Abby Clothier who collected All SEC American second team honors in 2019. There is also junior Patricia Columbia-Walsh, who will be playing at the University of Pennsylvania in two years.
Along with the season opener against Cedar Grove, the Lady Cougars will get at least one chance to avenge the county final loss against Glen Ridge. MKA hosts the Ridgers on May 15 at 11:30 a.m.. There will also be a city battle against Montclair at MKA on May 17 at 4 p.m.