Girls’ Soccer brings league championship back to the Lakes Region

WOLFEBORO — Brewster Academy’s Girls’ Varsity Soccer team brought the NEPSAC Championship Trophy back to Wolfeboro — completing their stellar undefeated run this fall with 18 wins and 0 losses. This is the program’s third undefeated season and seventh NEPSAC win, the last being in 2015. NEPSAC is the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council, with more than 150 member schools across New England. (Brewster annually competes against its league rivals: Holderness School, Kimball Union Academy, New Hampton School, Proctor Academy, St. Paul’s School, Tilton School, and Vermont Academy, as well as several other NEPSAC teams across New England and New York.)

The Brewster squad defeated #2 seed St. Luke’s School, 4 to 0, on Nov. 21 to capture the championship. Brewster’s Athletic Director Connor Wells said Sunday after the decisive game, “Legendary coach Vince Lombardi challenged that ‘perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.’ The 2021 Brewster Girls’ Varsity Soccer team was both perfect and excellent. It was a pleasure to watch this group compete and embody Brewster’s mission, a team who always demonstrated great purpose. Go Bobcats!”

The team faced Lakes Region rival Kimball Union Academy in a quarterfinal match. “In front of a large home crowd and a visiting section from KUA, Brewster played an incredible first half and a good second half against a competitive and well-coached opponent,” Coach Matt Butcher said, adding that it is always challenging to focus on soccer during the final week of classes, when students are working so hard to conclude the term well, but this group did a great job of balancing their commitments.

After defeating the talented Greens Farms Academy Dragons 3-0 on Nov. 20, the Brewster Bobcats were on their way to Deerfield Academy, the neutral site where the championship game took place.

Coaches Matt Butcher and Laura Cooper agreed that this year’s group was special, noting that their competitiveness, teamwork, and work ethic drove the season. On and off the field, the players worked together, laughed together, and united around shared goals. The team was led this season by captains Katie Carey ’22 of Greenfield; Sophia Renaud ’22 of Schenectady, NY; and Courtney Quirk ’22 of Londonderry.

To learn more about Brewster and its mission to prepare diverse thinkers for lives of purpose, visit brewsteracademy.org.