Girls soccer claims first Cape and Islands championship

The 2025 Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School varsity girls soccer team are the authors of a historic season, winning the program’s first league championship in over 25 years. The team sealed the title with a commanding shutout over Island rivals the Nantucket Whalers in the annual Battle in the Atlantic on Saturday, adding another feather in their season — the Golden Anchor trophy.

Equally impressive, the Vineyarders were one loss away from an undefeated season within their division, going 10-1-1 along with six league shutouts. The last league championship won by the Vineyard girls soccer program was in 1999.

“It feels really good for the girls to do that,” said head coach Matt Malowski after the girls claimed the title. “The girls are so incredibly proud of themselves but the community is as well.”

Overall, the Vineyarders were 13-4-1 on the season and ranked No. 25 out of 74 teams in division three of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). While looking ahead to the state tournament, the Vineyarders won’t know the playoff schedule until the coming days.

For Malowski, the accomplishment of the league title isn’t just the result of having skilled, hardworking players — though they certainly have that — but is also the result of investing in and strengthening the Island’s youth soccer programs over the years, and a deliberate development of a culture that values cohesiveness and camaraderie. He said that the program had been struggling, and not because of players or coaches.

“Community-wise, about 15 years ago, a lot of time, energy, and effort was put into changing MV United, our youth soccer program, and over the course of the years we are starting to see more benefits from that,” Malowski said. “We have more girls playing and it’s a really nice change to see this happening.”.

Malowski, alongside MVRHS alumni coaches Cana Courtney and Annie Ollen, prioritize building relationships above all else.

“In sports, … you’re forming three relationships, relationships with the ball, puck, or racket, that thing you’re playing with; you’re building a relationship with your teammates; and you’re building relationships with coaching staff,” said Malowski. “If you don’t have a relationship with each other, it’s really hard to do the other two.”

That development paid off in spades this year with the group forming a tight bond.

The Vineyard season’s single loss against teams in their league came against Sandwich High School at home on the McCarthy Stadium pitch earlier this month, the third-to-last game of the season. Malowski said that on the cusp of an undefeated season, the pressure got to them.

“We let the hype get to us and that was a good life lesson because it was all mental, we would’ve clinched the league title with that game, we would’ve potentially been undefeated in the league. So I think the girls went into that game a little tight and that was a good lesson, we just need to play our style,” he said.

While the girls soccer season is a chronicle of success, coach Malowski said the games that they lost — including non league action — were some of their most important and defining lessons. Non-league games against strong teams like Milford, Archbishop Williams, North Quincy, and Sutton pushed the Vineyarders to improve.

“It’s hard to find schools that are bigger, stronger, and faster than us [in league play] so we really wanted to get some of those teams because we wanted to test ourselves,” said Malowski.

Against North Quincy High School who is ranked No. 15 in a higher division than the Vineyard, the girls were leading 1-0 but ended up losing the game 2-1.

“We were right there,” said Malowski.

With soccer teams around the state continuing league play until Friday this week, two playoff scenarios are looming for the Vineyard team. If the Vineyard’s seed doesn’t improve before the end of the week, then they likely will have a preliminary game to be played against a lower seed on Sunday or Monday. If their seed does improve — based on play of other teams — then the Vineyarders could end up going right into the first round of the MIAA state playoffs where they would likely play a top five or top ten school in the state on Wednesday or Thursday.

For the Vineyarders, practices this week will be focused on staying healthy, technical improvement like passing and dribbling, and practicing two interchangeable formations. The goal for the team is to play their style of soccer no matter what.

“The goal is to make sure we play our style. We want to use the playoff hype for good, but we don’t want to get overstimulated like we did against Sandwich and have it become a distraction,” said Malowski. “If we can stay focused on our style of play, and we can focus on quick passes and things like that, the girls will do great. I don’t want to focus on the results, I want them to focus on executing.”

On the horizon for the girls varsity soccer team is also nominations for Cape and Islands and eastern Massachusetts league all stars. Malowski said they have five to six good contenders for the recognition.

Malowski also thanked the community for their support, and the Vineyard girls team for helping build a culture of camaraderie that can continue to grow for years to come.

“Our community has been really great, and local businesses who support our fundraisers and our school faculty have been great about encouraging the girls at school and all that and it’s nice,” said Malowski.” “Our team has 11 underclassmen and 11 upperclassmen and it’s a nice balance with older players mentoring younger players and hopefully it just carries that culture for the next several years.”