Cranford Edges Livingston in Girls’ LAX

Both teams needed a win. Though the Cranford and Livingston girls' lacrosse teams played with intensity and focus right to the finish, the Lady Cougars outlasted the Lady Lancers 11-10 Friday at Orange Avenue Field in Cranford.

"It was definitely awesome for their confidence," said Cranford coach Lauren Leddy. "We had some tough games the past couple of days. We were getting a little down on ourselves, but this was definitely a confidence booster for us, especially going into next week."

"It was really huge, it was a 10 definitely," said Jackie Monteagudo. "We brought all of our confidence back up, because after a tough week, we're in good shape now."

Cranford will host New Providence Tuesday night at Memorial Field at 7:30, which is not only senior night, but the first round of the county tournament.

"It was supposed to be a regular season game, but it's going to count as the first round of counties," said Leddy. "It's going to be a great game. It should be awesome. It's a big game for us. So it's nice to have a little bit of confidence going in."

Cranford led at halftime over Livingston by a count of 6-4, before the Lancers fought back. They outscored the Cougars 6-5 in the second stanza, but it wasn't enough.

Nicole Kleiman had four goals and four assists in another huge effort, while Mai-Lin Choy-Shan netted three goals. Alyssa Delayo chipped in with two, while Kelly Miller and Christie Valentine had one apiece. Morgan Mason and Brooke VanDerMeiren also had assists in the victory.

"The girls played awesome today all around, played a solid 50 minutes, which is something we've been working towards," Leddy said. "Our defense played great. Great communication. Alanna Conte played awesome. Our midfield was finally connecting some passes on our midfield transition. We looked pretty good."

Conte made 10 saves to help Cranford improve to 3-5 on the season, while Livingston fell to 2-6.

Leddy is still confident the best is yet to come.

"Like I said in the beginning of the season, these girls have so much heart. Once one person gets down on themselves out there on the field, they seem to all crumble, and after the Newark Academy game, we all got together and said this is going to stop. We're going to stay positive. We're going to encourage one another. It was a new team today. They really pulled together. They're such great girls all around and they're here to win, they're here to play hard. It just took a little bit of pushing to get them all on the same page and all stay positive during the game."

"We talked about how our attitudes were and we definitely were all pumped for this game," said Monteagudo. "We were really excited to play. We all put in 100 percent. The keys to the game were transition and marking up on defense. We moved the ball awesome on offense. Every loss just made us stronger. We got to see what was wrong."

The Cougar's season goals are still very much the same for this young team.

"We're still going for a .500 record," Leddy said. "That was our goal at the beginning of the season and we definitely haven't lost sight of that. And I think they can absolutely do it."

"Our team definitely has a lot of character. We work well together and it's starting to show through."

As for New Providence, expect the intensity level to move up to another level, with so much on the line.

"It's always been competitive against them in the past," Leddy said. "If we play like we played today, we should definitely have no problem. But it's going to be a fight. No game we play this season is going to be easy. It definitely should be a win if they play like they played today."

Monteagudo, for one, is riding the big wave of confidence.

"We're so excited, we can't wait to beat New Providence. We're going to have to leave it all on the field."