Field hockey notebook: Uxbridge eyes rare 4th straight title

After you’ve won 73 of your last 80 games, appeared in the last three Div. 1 state finals, and won two of them, losing by a deficit you haven’t lost by in years isn’t usually going to sit well.

But in the moments after the Andover field hockey team fell 4-0 to Div. 4’s Uxbridge on Oct. 9, head coach Bridget Morris wasn’t upset. She met with her team briefly, telling players positive takeaways. And after walking out of the huddle, she widened her eyes, raised her eyebrows, gestured toward Uxbridge and simply said: “They’re really good.”

Kyle Cappallo, head coach of Div. 4 contender Monomoy, calls Uxbridge a historic power – rostering four Div. 1 college-bound players and potentially more on the way. Bishop Feehan head coach Betsy D’Ambrosia didn’t lose confidence in her team as a Div. 1 contender after losing 9-1 to the Spartans, knowing just how good they are as three-time defending Div. 4 state champions.

Even Walpole head coach Jen Quinn, whose team is a favorite to repeat as Div. 1 state champions, expressed nerves before narrowly beating Uxbridge 1-0 on Oct. 2 – which avenged the dominant Porkers’ only loss from last year.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a coach or player that’s come across Uxbridge that doesn’t recognize its elite status.

After all, the Spartans are one of only three MIAA field hockey programs to ever three-peat. And by competing with, or even dominating, some of the state’s strongest foes, the Spartans (16-2) are showing all the signs it can join Watertown as the only programs to ever win four straight titles with another deep run this November.

Senior captains Ellie Bouchard and Bailey Dzivasen, as well as star juniors Amelia Blood and Kendall Gilmore, have been key catalysts – among others – to those three titles since they were freshmen and eighth-grade starters. All four smiled and chuckled when told what other coaches have said about their team.

Before they entered the program, Uxbridge field hockey didn’t have a single state championship, or even a state final appearance. It was a slow build when Kelly Rosborough first took over as head coach in 2014, but the program rapidly developed into a titan.

They’re humble, but honored other coaches recognize them for it.

“It’s exciting, but I’m super thankful that people think like that about us,” Blood said. “Because we are such a small school and we’ve come so far. It’s just a really great accomplishment.”

“My mom made a joke,” Dzivasen added separately. “She was like, ‘You don’t realize how good this is. You’re not going to realize until you grow older.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m a senior right now and I can’t believe we won three state championships already.’ … It makes me proud.”

There are many elements to the Spartans that makes them an elite force in the state.

It starts with the college-bound stars, as Gilmore (Maryland), Blood (Wake Forest), junior forward Julianna Casucci (New Hampshire) and Bouchard (Bryant) are headed to Div. 1. Dzivasen is a Franklin Pierce softball commit, and junior Julia Okenquist is still surveying her options as one of the state’s top goalies.

Sophomores Addie Blood and Maddie Cammuso help Dzivasen anchor a defense that’s allowed just six goals with 14 shutouts despite facing one of the state’s toughest schedules. Freshman forward Ava Rosborough bolsters Casucci and Ellie Bouchard up top to pace an attack averaging over seven goals per game, and sophomores Brooklyn Kaferlein and Aubrey Bouchard are vital alongside Amelia Blood and Gilmore in a midfield that often controls the flow of the game.

“I feel like everyone is very talented at everything,” said Ellie Bouchard. “Everyone can play offense, everyone can play defense.”

Speed, athleticism, strength, hit accuracy, hitting versatility, stick-handling, tackling – the talent is unquestioned. But what’s made Uxbridge so strong over the last four-plus years is its dedication to each other as a unit rather than individuals. Their bond, after all growing up together, playing youth field hockey together and even club together, is a driving force in their success.

“I think, honestly, just playing with each other for so long, we know each other,” Dzivasen said. “We know our strengths, we know our weaknesses, we just know each other. And we can build off of that.”

“I feel like we just work really well together,” Ellie Bouchard added. “We find each other on the field, I don’t even know how else to explain it.”

It’s that commitment to team that has not only made this run possible, but also so special.

Amelia Blood, Gilmore and Casucci were eighth-grade starters in 2021 when Uxbridge first won the state title. Dzivasen and Ellie Bouchard were second-year starters as freshman.

Blood’s favorite memory in the three years since isn’t scoring the game-winning goal to deliver that first state championship. Bouchard’s isn’t when she became the program’s first 100-goal scorer. Gilmore’s isn’t even any of the state championships, and neither is Dzivasen’s exactly.

Dzivasen’s smile goes ear-to-ear when talking about the bus ride home from those state championships, enjoying the celebration with teammates and the Uxbridge community. That community is what Bouchard talks about when referring to the first state championship, with how meaningful it was to have the town relish in the victory with them.

But for all four – perhaps the main highlight was a double-overtime win over Monomoy in the 2022 state semifinals.

“In that moment, for us, it just took all of us to come together and work as a team,” Gilmore said. “I think we did really well with that. We trusted each other all the way because we’ve been playing since youth up until high school. We just knew we had each others’ backs and I think that’s what guided us through that win. … I just love how we get to have those connections on and off the field.”

As long as they keep sticking together, Uxbridge – with only Dzivasen and Bouchard graduating – is far from done making shockwaves, too.

Tourney time

The last set of MIAA power rankings came out Friday, and the official state tournament brackets will be released Tuesday at 11 a.m. before action starts on Thursday. Initial instinct for teams whose schedules wrapped up before Friday is to assume their ranking shouldn’t change too much now, if at all.

Don’t assume that.

Watertown chases own history

The Raiders concluded yet another perfect regular season, extending their win streak to 92 games heading into the Div. 3 state tournament. The only other MIAA field hockey program to even reach 68 is Walpole.

Watertown still has a long way to go to catch its own national record of 124 straight wins, but the program can take pride in owning the state’s top two winning streaks.