No Sweat: Monomoy Field Hockey Goalie Records 300 Saves, Storms To Next Milestone

HARWICH – This story was supposed to be about Monomoy field hockey junior goalkeeper Maddy Swett eclipsing the 300-save mark earlier this month.

But by the time these words in print reach readers, it’s possible she’ll have already hit 400 saves too.

Swett is Monomoy’s rock in the cage — and has been for years. The round number milestones are just the statistical confirmations of such.

The Sharks’ keeper since she was an eighth grader, Swett recorded save 300 against Hingham on Oct. 8.

 Performances of 41 saves (not a typo) against Sandwich on Oct. 15 and 29 against Somerset Berkley last Saturday have Swett right on the doorstep of 400. She’s only 11 away (as of The Chronicle’s Tuesday deadline).

“She starts us off,” Monomoy head coach Laura Morris said. “I mean, with her there, being so confident, it just sort of rolls over to the rest of the team. She starts it off, and then everybody else just moves from there.”

With the Sharks working through injury and one of the hardest field hockey schedules in Massachusetts, Swett’s steady dependability as the last line of defense, already critical, has gained outsized importance.

Against defending Division 4 champs Dennis-Yarmouth on Oct. 13, Swett came up huge as the Dolphins really mounted offensive pressure near the end of the game. She had 10 saves in the 1-1 draw.

Then she registered the eye-popping total against Division 3 runners-up Sandwich, a 6-0 loss for the Sharks, who were down two key players (Somerset Berkley are also the defending Division 2 champs).

“They were on her pads the entire game and she kept us in there, and it was incredible,” Morris said. “She's really good at that small game. She can move her feet really well, and 41 is not a mistake, for sure.”

Swett started out playing field hockey at clinics about 10 years ago. As netminder origin stories often go, she was first a field player — until her coach, one day, asked if anyone wanted to step up to fill the goalie spot.

Already a soccer goalkeeper, Swett replied in the affirmative — and has played the position ever since.

“I just like getting balls shot at me because I feel like when I do make the saves, it feels really good to have the saves and my team cheering for me,” she said.

That it took 21 games for Swett to go from her 200th save (made September of last year) to her 300th is only a testament to how frequently stifling Monomoy’s entire defense has been. 

The rapid ascent to 400 will take far fewer contests. Against Division 2 runners-up Hingham, when Swett hit 300, she made 9 saves as the Sharks fell 2-0.

“I had a lot of pressure on me because they were a really strong team and they were down on me a lot,” Swett said. “And I just had to focus on the game and clearing the ball out.”

Even apart from kicking and swatting and blocking balls away from the goal — her direct physical influence on the game — Swett still affects Monomoy’s success. From way back on the Sharks’ side of the field, she is an audible director of teammate movement and matchups.

Morris said Swett’s “confidence every game has really helped us to be where we are at this point.”

“I think that she just leads from back there,” Morris said. “She's super knowledgeable about the game, and she's always communicating to the players on the team, and I think those defensive players are learning from her.”

Swett — who plays for Monomoy next to her twin brother Mason, a defender — has served between the pipes for so many high-pressure matches, with the Sharks always in the Division 4 postseason mix. But she treats those late autumn games like any other.

“I just take it as I'm playing,” she said. “I'm just playing, showing what I can do by just clearing the balls that come at me.”

Her favorite play she’s ever made — among the nearly 400 of them — was a jumping hand stop during one of the state finals against Uxbridge. She keeps a photo of it. She’s also a fan of all diving saves, especially those to her stick side. 

Whatever the manner of the save or the moment, there’s sure to be many more as Swett plays out a storied high school career.

“She's had a great year,” Morris said. “She really has, and she'll continue next year with us to do great things.”

With key players senior Emery Cappallo and sophomore Mia Zimmerman out, the rest of the team has risen to fill the gaps, Morris said.

“Our last two games have been some of the best that we've had, and everybody just has really, really stepped up,” she said. “And I think when we get those two players back, I think we can really do good things.”

Once again this year, Monomoy’s regular season slate contains basically no breathers. Per the MIAA’s opponent rating (a metric of the strength of a team’s opposition), the Sharks have the third-hardest schedule in all of Massachusetts field hockey.

It’s also the hardest schedule outright in Division 4 — by a great deal. Monomoy (currently ranked at the No. 4 seed) has an opponent rating of 2.1249. No other fellow divisional team’s number exceeds 1.7000.

So, the Sharks are competing multiple times a week against their elite counterparts both in and out of the division. Some days, they feel that attrition.

But with the team’s depth stepping up and getting significant midseason reps, the outlook for the rest of the year is bright.   

“We're competing, and that's the most important thing,” Morris said. “And we look good, so I'm happy for what's to come.