Sisterly Duo On First Line Has Nauset-Monomoy Rolling

ORLEANS – When Sabrina Bassett dishes the puck to Gaby Bassett, and Gaby finishes the play with a score for Nauset-Monomoy, the pass goes down as an assist for Sabrina on the game sheet. Put another way, she becomes the assister to her sister.

Or, as one teammate called it, Sabrina doesn’t pick up an assist but rather an “a-sis” in those cases where she helps her sis score. 

The duo — Monomoy freshman Sabrina and senior Gaby — have formed a tight-knit pair along the Nauset-Monomoy girls hockey team’s first line, a lineup arrangement that was only set after a slow start to the season. Following the switch that brought the two sisters together on the opening lineup, the Warriors have rolled, going from 1-5 to 8-6.

“It's great,” Gaby said. “I love it. I yell at her a lot, but I mean, it's out of love.”

This is the second season the two sisters, who live in Chatham, have played together for Nauset-Monomoy. Last year was really the first time they had ever been on a true team together. Sabrina, as an eighth grader, played defense then. The move this season to right wing, putting her right next to Gaby at center, has only furthered their connection.

“We have, like, the sister-to-sister brain thing, so I always know where she is on the ice,” Sabrina said.

Off the ice, Gaby and Sabrina get mistaken for twins. Gaby, the team’s captain, leans a little more serious while Sabrina can be goofy and smiley, though both are very competitive. 

Inside the rink, Gaby’s speed is the differentiator — not only in comparison to her younger sister but to every other player. She’s scored more than 100 goals and recorded more than 150 points for the Warriors across her career, and she’s committed to play collegiate hockey at Nichols College.

Sabrina, who’s on pace to be a five-year varsity player just like her older sister, has the hand-eye coordination and hockey IQ. Add in the apparent extrasensory perception that comes into play on the ice and the pairing makes for a formidable sisterly combo. As Sabrina puts it, Gaby buzzes around and knows where to be, she knows where she’ll be, she passes the puck to Gaby, Gaby gets a goal, she gets an “a-sis.”

“I really don't know,” Sabrina said. “I just know where she is.”

Gaby and Sabrina talk hockey outside of games and practices, the older sister often offering the younger one constructive criticism — as elder siblings tend to do — to help her get better as a player and a person. 

“I feel like we've connected more because of it, because we're always in the car together going to hockey and just being together more than we were,” Gaby said.

The two sisters are, of course, not the only players on Nauset-Monomoy. Together with Gaby, Nauset senior Julia Kipperman paces the scoring for the Warriors, while other players similarly get in the mix. For the duration of the season, the team will also have to surmount an injury suffered by Nauset sophomore Maeve Kennally earlier this month against Barnstable/Upper Cape Tech/Cape Cod Tech.

But the Warriors have already overcome at least once this season upon starting 1-5. They switched the lineup around after that, which included putting the two Bassett sisters together on the first line. Then they won seven of their next eight games. Now Nauset-Monomoy is ranked No. 8 in Division 2. 

“We're always very sharp at practice, and I feel like after all the practices we've gone through, we've had to get somewhere,” Sabrina said. “We were just starting to pick up on the little things we were lacking in the game.”

Gaby seamlessly continued her sister’s point: “And just the team bonding, being there for each other. At the start of the season, we were kind of separated, and we kind of just figured out our problems.”