Going into the 2024 volleyball season the GMHS girls volleyball team had many goals, including winning the NCCC Regular season, the NCCC Tournament, making it to the State Championship finals, and having an undefeated season, among other difficult goals. The only ones they didn’t achieve were having an undefeated season and winning the State Championship. The team suffered a loss early in the regular season against its rival, Coventry. They went on to beat Coventry later in the regular season to secure the NCCC Regular Season Championship Title. The Bears defeated Coventry again in the NCCC tournament finals, making them Conference Champs.
Moving on to the State Tournament, the Bears were granted a bye as third seed in the Class M bracket. Their first matchup was a hard-fought win against Weston to move on to the quarter-finals. They faced an undefeated Nonnewaug, which the Bears won handily in a 3–0 match. They went on to win in the semi-finals against Sacred Heart Academy to advance to the Class M State Finals.
Players and coaches were thrilled to return to the State Championship Finals after 10 years. For the team’s JV Coach Molly Hammack, the return was a full-circle moment. Hammack was part of the 2014 team as a Libero when the Bears won the state title 10 years ago.
Although the championship game on Nov. 16 ended in a loss, the team put up a hard-fought battle against Joel Barlow, wrapping up a successful season. The team had many individual accomplishments this year: seniors Sage Pycz, Olivia Teclaw, Jayne Hiatt and sophomore Teresa Moody were named All Conference NCCC; senior setter Olivia Teclaw achieved an impressive 1,000 assists; senior co-captain Jayne Hiatt achieved 1,000 kills (first ever in program history) and was MVP of the NCCC tournament.
The team was led by seniors Sydney Lisowski (Libero), Sage Pycz (outside), Katie O’Neill (middle), Olivia Teclaw (setter), co-captains Natalie Jones (right side), Jayne Hiatt (outside) and sophomores Cleo Kuester (defensive specialist) and Teresa Moody (middle). The team is coached by Granby resident Dave Sprowson who is in his 18th season with the team and started the program in Granby in 2007. The team finished the season 24-2, ranked second in Class M for the state.