Monomoy Reaches Field Hockey State Semifinals For Fifth Consecutive Season

HARWICH – For the fifth year in a row, the Monomoy Sharks stand as one of four final teams left in the MIAA Div. 4 field hockey state tournament.

For the fifth year in a row, they’ll embark onto the semifinals in pursuit of their first championship.

To get there this year, the No. 1 Sharks (12-5-1) assembled their most commanding stretch of the season, most recently taking down No. 8 Manchester Essex (13-4-1) 7-0 in the quarterfinals last Friday after cruising through the first and second rounds of the tournament. 

Now they’re in the final four yet again. And this time, Uxbridge — who have bounced the Sharks from the tournament three seasons in a row (twice in the finals, once in the semifinals) — is no longer a threat approaching from the other side of the bracket. Uxbridge is now an undefeated, first-seeded, four-time reigning state champion of a problem for Division 3.

Monomoy has prepared for precisely this juncture. Dating back to the summer, the group put in the time to understand that they win and lose as a team.

“The name on the front of that jersey, it's more important than the name on the back, and that's how they have to think, and they have to really come together,” head coach Kyle Cappallo said. “There's a lot of people on and off Cape, on other teams, you name it — there's a lot of people that really root for us to fall and we use that as a way to come together, and it galvanizes our energy, and we've got something to prove to a lot of people.”

The Sharks steeled themselves for the state tournament through a sword-sharpening trial of a regular season schedule that amounted to the fourth-highest opponent rating in Massachusetts (and the highest in Division 4). They started the year 0-2. Monomoy played the No. 1, 6 and 11 seeds in Division 2 and the No. 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10 seeds in Division 3. The only two intra-division games they played until the playoffs were against their bracket’s eventual No. 2 seed. 

It’s little surprise then that Monomoy cruised in the first three rounds, blanking No. 32 St. Paul Diocesan (8-5-3) 10-0, No. 16 Lunenburg (12-0-4) 8-0, then Manchester Essex in succession. These were essentially their most comfortable matches of the year. Including the regular season, Monomoy hasn’t allowed a goal since Oct. 20.

“We stick with a strategy,” Cappallo said. “We stick with a system. It works. We got the right people in the right places, and we create the turnovers, which is really key. We transition well.”

In addition to the three consecutive shutouts, the 18 goals in the first two rounds and the 25 goals in all three are the highest scoring totals the Sharks have put up across two and three matches this season. 

Sophomore goalkeeper Maddy Swett, backing a defense that’s allowed barely any pressure thus far, has also been able to see the offense coalesce.

“They're good at putting all the puzzle pieces together and working well together,” Swett said. 

Against Lunenburg on Nov. 5, senior Sam Clarke (3), junior Emery Cappallo (2), senior Tessa Grodzicki, junior Kate Huse and freshman Mia Zimmerman put in goals for Monomoy. Against Manchester Essex, Zimmerman (3), Cappallo (2) and Clarke (2) scored. 

“I'm proud of us,” Zimmerman said after the quarterfinals. “We've all been working so hard for this moment, and this team is just so good. I love them all, so we feel like we deserve this.”

The Sharks next face No. 5 Frontier Regional (12-4-2) in neutral-site Marlborough on Thursday (Nov. 13). In the other simultaneous semifinal match, No. 2 Dennis-Yarmouth (13-5-0) will play No. 3 Cohasset (12-3-1) in Bridgewater. Once again, Monomoy is just two wins away. They’ve never won a state championship in the program’s history (Harwich High School won Div. 2 South sectional titles in 1994 and 2002).  

Getting to the final four has, amazingly, been the baseline for the team for half a decade. The last time the Sharks didn’t reach the semis was 2019. They’ve worked exceedingly hard to obtain another bite at the apple. With what the players have experienced this season and in years past, they’re about as ready as a team possibly could be.

“We're coming together at the right time,” Cappallo said. “We're playing at the tempo that we need to play. We're putting it all together right when we need to, so we're confident going into the next game.”