EASTHAM — At halftime of Nauset’s first round Division 3 game with Archbishop Williams on May 29, it was clear that the Archies were going to have to find a way to stop Julia Kipperman, Nauset’s star midfielder, if they were going to have a chance to win. That did not happen.
Kipperman started the second half of a tie game by winning the draw, sprinting up the field to within a handshake of Williams goalie Aliya Greenwood, and ripping a shot past the junior backstop for her eighth goal of the contest. That gave the Warriors a lead they would not relinquish.
“This year Julia has exploded,” said Nauset Coach Heather Stevens, who in 22 seasons at the helm has seen her share of prolific scorers and dominant players. “I’m blown away.”
Kipperman was named MVP of the Cape and Islands League and immediately showed why she deserved that honor. She had a hat trick midway through the first period and finished the half with seven tallies.
The 17th-seeded Archies from Braintree were 14-5 and had one opponent in common with Nauset — Bishop Stang. “I knew it was going to be a back-and-forth game coming in,” said Stevens. “They beat Bishop Stang by the same goal differential as we did; they have several strong scorers, and their goalie is definitely very good.”
The first half was the back-and-forth affair that Stevens had anticipated. Williams led 5-4 after the first quarter, and the teams went into the break tied at 8, but not before the Archies had taken their biggest lead of the game at 8-6.
The Warriors seemed on the verge of blowing it open in the third quarter, outscoring the Archies 7 to 3 and taking a 15-11 lead into the final period. In a particularly compelling sequence, Kipperman, after winning yet another draw (she singlehandedly won six of the seven draws that Nauset controlled in the quarter), held up short of the goal and laced a perfect pass to Laurel Ricard. The senior attackman wasted no time driving it home. Shortly thereafter, Ricard returned the favor with a crisp pass to Kipperman cutting through the center of the field. Kipperman converted the feed to increase the Warriors’ advantage to 14-9.
With their lead still at five midway through the fourth following senior captain Abby Powers’s second goal of the day off of a pretty feed from Zoe Labdon, it looked like the Warriors would cruise into the second round.
But Archbishop Williams was not ready to fold. The Archies struck for three goals in a three-minute span with the final two coming 25 seconds apart to pull the visitors within two, 17-15, with less than four minutes remaining.
The Warriors looked to Kipperman to steady the ship, which she did by winning the draw (Nauset, as was usually the case in the regular season, won the draw battle, 25 to 11) at which point the Warriors put on a textbook demonstration of how to efficiently run out the clock. They held the ball for all but a few seconds, effectively countering aggressive double teams with exceptional ball handling and accurate passing. When the game ended, the ball, fittingly, was in Kipperman’s stick.
The win was Nauset’s 12th of the year, surpassing their 2024 victory total. It marked the sixth time this year that the Warriors scored at least 15 goals.
Their 17-goal effort was impressive on many fronts, but especially against an Archbishop Williams defense that surrendered fewer than 8 goals per game in the regular season. It equaled the most goals that the Archies had allowed this year.
Coach Stevens was happy to win a playoff game against tough competition in front of the home fans. “I don’t necessarily believe in home field advantage,” said the coach, “but the fans definitely helped, and it was good to have them supporting us.”
All four Nauset captains got into the scoring column. In addition to Kipperman’s 12 goals, Powers and Labdon each scored twice. Ricard did her part with a goal and an assist.
As was the case through much of the regular season, Nauset’s goalie tandem of junior Norah Swanson and freshman Maeve Kennally shared time in the net. Swanson started, recording five saves, and Kennally took over in the second half, matching her partner with five stops.
The 16th-seeded Warriors, now 12-6 for the season, will have their work cut out for them when they travel to Medfield on June 5 to face the top-seeded team in Division 3 at 4 p.m. Medfield sports an 18-3 record and is the Division 3 defending champion.
