Granby Memorial Girls Lax Back to Winning Ways

The girls lacrosse team bounced back from its tough loss against Avon Wednesday with a 14-0 rout of Canton on Thursday afternoon.

Samantha Fairman and Olivia Johnson each had three goals and an assist for the Bears, while Abby Hokunson scored two goals and added an assist. Cailene Gunn had a goal and two assists, Mia Olsen scored a goal and had an assist, and Meg Hebert, Kelsey Iwanicki, Brandi Byczkiewicz and Mackenzie Brower each tallied a goal as well.

Goalie Emily Bernard made three saves to earn the shutout, as the Bears improved to 4-1 on the year. Canton fell to 1-5.

The victory was just the tonic for Granby Memorial after the to the Falcons the day prior.

“You can hone in on things you want to improve with, and we were able to do that [today],” Bears head coach Terri Ziemnicki said.

And despite the loss of leading scorer Christine Latona and top midfielder Abby Bascetta from last year’s squad that advanced to the state Class S final game, Ziemnicki believes this year’s team is capable of postseason glory.

“This is a great senior group and they are making the best of it,” said Ziemnicki, noting the play of seniors Griffin, Gunn, Brower, Kristen Endorf, Kate Mooney, Fairman, Bernard and Hebert. “They had Christine and Abby last year as their big leaders and these guys were waiting in the wings. Now it’s their turn and they’ve stepped up to that.”

Granby Memorial has a big test next Thursday, April 26, against Northwest Catholic at home at 3:45 p.m., while Canton High is scheduled to face Lewis Mills on Monday, also at home, at 4 p.m.