Last year’s Essex County Girls Lacrosse Tournament final developed into a late-game nail-biter as Glen Ridge edged Montclair Kimberley Academy, 6-5, for its second straight title and ninth championship in the 20-year history of the event.
Now, the Ridgers and Cougars are again the teams to watch as the respective top two seeds in the 21st ECT which assembled its field on Wednesday (April 29) and will certainly heat up once the girls lax event hits the semifinals on Thursday, May 7, with the championship game slated for 4:30 p.m., Saturday, May 9, at Livingston’s Allen ‘Jake’ Jacobson Memorial Field.
Both teams, who are members of the highly-competitive NJIGLL Stars & Stripes White Division, have had their share of close contests with strong opponents during the first month of the season.
And, while both third-seeded Montclair and fourth -seeded West Essex also have eyes on a berth in the final, it does appear that Glen Ridge and MKA could be on a collision course as far as soon meeting in the 2026 county championship match.
First round action gets underway Saturday with 9-Livingston at 8-Millburn, 12-West Orange at 5-Verona, 10-Cedar Grove at 7-Columbia and 11-Mount St. Dominic at 6-Caldwell.
The top four seeds received byes into the Tuesday, May 5, quarterfinals.
Glen Ridge edged MKA, 11-8, in their regular season clash back on April 6, while the Ridgers have had losses to very tough foes such as Westfield 13-6) and Kent Place (10-9), and MKA was edged by both Oak Knoll (8-6) and Kent Place (9-7).
The Ridgers (5-3, 4-1 in the NJIGLL Stars & Stripes-White) and Cougars (8-4, 3-2) were tied 5-5 at the half in their early April showdown and the match remained highly-competitive in the second half.
A second chance against the perennial ECT champs and Group 1 state title contender would certainly be highly-anticipated by MKA coach Kristin Klank, who is also a former Cougar standout player and has seen plenty of the Ridgers through the years.
“We want that back,” the Cougars’ second-year head mentor remarked when asked about her team’s nip-and-tuck early-season clash with Glen Ridge. “We feel that the way we’re playing we can take on anybody we face and be highly-competitive.
“Winning an Essex County Tournament title would be huge for our girls!”
MKA, which has appeared in three ECT finals, has never won a county tourney championship.
The Cougars are led by a number of very potent scorers, including four girls who have 30 or more goals in juniors Bebe Scuorzo (31 goals, 15 assists) and Peyton Sullivan (30 and 22), senior tri-captain Shea Murphy (30 and 15) and the coach’s precocious daughter, freshman Sloane Dawes (30 goals, along with 70 draw controls).
Shea and her sister Maggie Murphy, another superb all-around player, serve as senior tri-captains along with goalie Ella Freeman (111 saves, 89 goals allowed), who is headed to play her women’s college lacrosse next year at the University of Chicago.
