McCann Tech Girls Top Lee, Secure .500 Record

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – It took the McCann Tech girls lacrosse program 38 games to earn its first varsity win.

 

Since starting out 0-37, the Hornets have gone 11-5.

 

And on Friday, McCann Tech improved to 7-4 this season to guarantee the program’s first appearance in the Division 4 State Tournament.

 

Taylor Ziemba and Colbie Crouse each had a hat trick, and Zoe Kratz stopped six shots in a 9-3 win over Lee.

 

Ziemba is one of five seniors on the team who helped the program grow from its humble beginnings and an 0-10 debut season that included a 26-0 loss to Lee.

 

Last spring, Ziemba scored a goal and classmate Gabby Wells-Vidal scored five in the program’s first win, a game that started the Hornets on a 4-1 stretch to finish the regular season and provided momentum for this spring.

 

“That was a big turning point,” Ziemba said of the close to the 2025 campaign. “I think it really made our team realize our potential. We really saw what we can do.”

 

Lately, what McCann Tech has been doing is winning. Its current three-game winning streak puts the Hornets three games over .500 with three games left in the regular season. A .500 record is a ticket to the state tournament.

 

Ziemba got Friday’s game going in the right direction with a free position goal in the third minute of play and at the end of a 2 minute, 36 second position that started by winning the opening draw.

 

Wells-Vidal (one goal, one assist) came in from the left wing and scored to make it 2-0 less than a minute later, and Ziemba converted a bounce shot in the ninth minute to give the Hornets a three-goal margin.

 

Mallory Lucey scored the first of her two goals in the final minute of the first quarter to get the Wildcats on the board.

 

But Crouse and Ziemba beat Lee keeper Claire Davis (nine saves) to start the second, giving their team a four-goal margin.

 

Lee’s Lucia Naventi scored the team’s second last-minute goal to get within three, 5-2, at half-time.

 

But McCann Tech put the game out of reach with a four-goal run that included goals 29 seconds apart from senior Natalie Tatro and Aliza Rozon (one goal, one assist) midway through the fourth to make it 8-2.

 

Naventi set up Lucey for a goal with 2:16 left in regulation, but Crouse answered just 10 seconds later to supply the final margin.

 

McCann Tech coach Christian Chenail was happy to see his seniors – Tatro, Ziemba, Wells-Vidal and Ryleigh Holland – celebrate a major milestone in a road that they started together in the spring of 2023.

 

“They’ve experienced the whole spectrum of it from freshman year all the way up to now,” Chenail said. “So to be able to see some benefit come from the hard work and see the younger kids get to benefit and learn from it as well is nice.”

 

Ziemba agreed.

 

“It feels really good,” she said. “We’ve come a long way. This team kind of started as nothing, and we only have a few girls [left]. We’re working our butts off, and we’ve come a long way.”

 

Photos from this game to come.