Sears, a second-team All-American as a sophomore in 2019, already had 29 points through five games before COVID-19. It’s not the first time that she experienced the heartache of a lost season. She tore the ACL in her right knee the day before the first game of her junior season at Skaneateles.
“The only difference is in high school, like anybody who goes through an injury, you feel a little isolated,” Sears said. “You don’t have the same connections of being with your teammates on the field. This time around, I got to go through this with 20-30 of my best friends who also fell in the same boat.
“It makes coming together and getting back on the same field after a whole year off that much more special. It really brought us closer.”
Sears also missed six games at the start of her senior season at Skaneateles. She tore her meniscus in the same knee in a season-opening loss. Skaneateles lost three more games before Sears returned, sparking a 15-game winning streak that culminated in the 2017 Class D state championship. Sears scored to send the game to overtime and then buried a free position to lift the Lakers to a 12-11 win over Bronxville.
“Her walking back on the field playing just made our team better. They played better, they played faster, they played harder, they played stronger because she’s such a role model,” Skaneateles coach Bridget Marquardt said. “You always say you can’t win or lose games because of one person, but you certainly can when she has that impact on the other 22 players.”
Sears bookended her high school career with championships — she started playing varsity in eighth grade and was a freshman on Skaneateles’ Class C state title team in 2014 — and was named the USA Lacrosse National Player of the Year as a senior.
“I used to see this little blonde girl in sixth grade playing wall ball up near our practice facilities,” Marquardt said. “And she was there every day. Every day. Right and left hand. This little peanut of a girl.”
Sears doesn’t look strikingly different now, but at Princeton she has added significant muscle. Her bio says she’s 5-foot-4.
“That’s a lie,” she said. “That’s with cleats on.”