EASTHAM — It was a bittersweet evening for Nauset’s field hockey players when eight seniors bid a tearful goodbye to their teammates before heading home on Thursday, Oct. 24. While the school year was far from over, Thursday marked the end of the regular field hockey season — and the seniors knew they might only have a few games left with the family they’d created over the past three months.
Thursday was senior night at Nauset High, and photographs of the eight players graduating this spring — forwards Lauren Silva, Laurel Ricard, Lily Langway, Carly Dinnan, and Abby Powers, midfielder Cleo Donavan, and backs Zoe Landon and Lexi Robicheau — lined the fences around the turf. Coach Tia Raspante delivered a heartfelt speech as the seniors ran through a tunnel of field hockey sticks held by underclassmen from the varsity and junior varsity teams.
“We all love each other so much,” team captain Robicheau told a reporter after the game, doing her best to hold back tears. “Any time I get to spend with them is just the best.”
Robicheau, who started playing field hockey as a forward in 6th grade, said she only “really got serious” during freshman year, when she started playing for the Warriors as a center back. She’s been on the team ever since, and even though she’s graduating she doesn’t have any intention of putting down the stick: next fall she’ll play for Roger Williams University’s Hawks, coached by field hockey hall-of-famer Jill Reeve.
“I’m really excited to learn from such an amazing coach,” Robicheau said.
Nauset’s final record for the season was 7-8-3, with Thursday’s game a 0-2 loss against St. John Paul II High School (13-6-1). Raspante chalked up the loss mostly to St. John Paul II’s aggressive style: she said her team is possession-oriented, so it can be difficult to work the ball against a team whose players are constantly dashing to take it back.
“It’s great on their end, but we’ve got to adjust,” she said. “We have to figure out how we can play against a team that plays like that.”
Raspante says her team usually tries to play on the right side of the field, which is difficult for opponents to defend because most players are right-handed. Unfortunately, that strategy wasn’t enough to beat St. John Paul II either of the times the Warriors faced them; back in September, the Warriors were defeated in their first meeting 1-2.
The Lions’ commitment to aggressive play can be daunting to watch. St. John Paul II coach Megan Shortt shouted instructions from the sidelines — “Go to! Go to! Get it out of there!” — while goalie Madi Ross thumped her sticks against her leg guards and shouted battle cries to motivate her teammates. Off the field, though, St. John Paul II’s players were cordial and supportive, and they cheered when Nauset’s seniors posed for a pregame photo.
“Anyone can tell how connected we are,” Raspante said, including, it seemed, the opposition.
The good news is that the girls’ record qualifies them for the Mass. Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Division 3 field hockey tournament, ranking them 27th out of 56 teams as of the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday. The top 32 teams in the state qualify for the tournament, and any team that wins or ties at least half of its games qualifies for a play-in game.
Dennis-Yarmouth (11-4-2), often a rival for the Warriors in other sports, finished 5th in the division and will certainly play in the tournament, as will Sandwich (19-0-0), which finished first overall — but the Nauset field hockey team doesn’t discriminate when it comes to choosing a rival.
“I don’t think we have just one rival,” Raspante said. “All the teams in our conference are pretty decent.”
This is Raspante’s first year coaching the Nauset team after working as an assistant field hockey coach at Western New England University. She said that the eight seniors she met this year were especially welcoming: “I couldn’t have had this season without them,” she said. “I’m so happy and proud. They never gave up.”
While the coming tournament may be the last time the current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors get to play with Robicheau and the other seniors, next year’s Warriors will be far from helpless. Robicheau said that junior forward Mira Gerardi is someone she “can totally rely on at all times”; she also called junior captain Callie Murphy, a midfielder who came back to the team after a knee injury last season, a “really strong player.” Forward Chloe Hand and midfielder Annabelle Senatori, both juniors, are also players to watch, she said.
Even after the tournament ends, Robicheau won’t be ready to leave her Nauset family behind. “I’ll definitely come back whenever I can,” she said, reminiscing about team dinners fondly remembered. She might not be playing on the NRHS turf next year, but she’ll be in the stands, cheering loudly.
