By Wayland Post staff
With three head coaches in three years and back-to-back losing seasons, the Wayland High School girls’ basketball team faced a tough road to make the playoffs in 2025-26.
The Warriors used a quick start — four wins in a row and victories in six of its first seven games — to finish 10-10 and earn a spot in the MIAA Division 2 tournament. Unfortunately, the season came to an end in Kingston on Feb. 27 when a deeper and taller Silver Lake squad outlasted Wayland, 54-36, in a preliminary round game.
“It was just an awesome opportunity to be in a playoff game,” coach Tim Glavin said. “The girls were very excited about it. This season is definitely something we can build off for next season.”
With only seven experienced players after losing senior tri-captain Eliza Russell to an ACL tear in the 17th game of the season, 41st-seeded Wayland got into early foul trouble and it proved to be costly.
Wayland kept up with the Lakers, only trailing 9-7 after the first quarter. When a second Warriors player picked up her third foul with four minutes remaining in the second quarter, 24th-seeded Silver Lake scored the final six points of the half for a 24-14 lead it would not relinquish.
“As a coaching staff, we were proud of how we played,” Glavin said. “Going into the game, we knew they had so much depth and we had to stay out of foul trouble.”
Senior tri-captain Sarah Powell led the way with 20 points, while sophomore Fiona Strehle, who missed the first half of the season with an injury, had her best game with seven points and 10 rebounds.
“I think for us as a staff, being in the playoffs is something we do not want to take for granted because you never know when you might be back,” Glavin said.
Girls’ ice hockey
Despite the huge seeding discrepancy between the Wayland girls’ ice hockey team and its first-round opponent Medfield, Wayland didn’t flinch or look out of place. They w ent stride for stride with the host team before eventually falling 3-1 in the Division 2 first-round matchup on Feb. 25 at the Canton Ice House.
The two teams entered the third period tied 1-1 before ninth-seeded Medfield scored for a 2-1 advantage midway through the final frame. An empty-net tally concluded the scoring.
“The girls battled and gave it everything they had,” said coach Jess Boehmer. “As coaches, we couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Defenseman Emma Rocnik scored the lone goal for 24th-seeded Wayland when she took a pass from fellow defender Drew Galizio and found the back of the net. Freshman Jenna Lee made 22 saves in goal.
Wayland finished the season 6-12-2 (the same record as last year), eight losses by two or fewer goals. It had winless streaks of five and seven games in the middle of the season, derailing a positive 4-1 record to start the season.
“We had a great start and then had to find our footing again after the December break,” Boehmer said. “The girls never lost their drive and stayed positive the whole time, even though it’s hard when losses are piling up.
“Almost every game was a close game for us, and while not as many games went our way as we had hoped, toward the end of the season we were consistent in all three periods [during games’ and set tempo, as opposed to reacting to a team’s play,” he added.
