You could use a lot of words to describe the Newburyport girls soccer program over the last four years (and, really, a lot longer than that). But there’s one that definitely stands out above the rest for the Clippers during that stretch, all thanks to an elite 10-person senior class that is going to be greatly missed.
Winning.
And one of the many engines fueling that success has been Aoife Tykulsky.
When it comes down to the most basic way of how you win a soccer game — putting the ball into the back of the net — nobody was better this year, or has been better, than our 2025 Daily News Girls Soccer MVP. For the past four years, Tykulsky has been the definition of clutch for the Clippers, who are going to miss seeing No. 9 race down the field and beat the opposing keeper for a goal.
57 wins.
That’s the undoubtedly huge number that Tykulsky and the rest of her senior class were able to put up over their careers (average of 14.3 wins per year). A key rotation player from the day she set foot in Newburyport High, Tykulsky would help the program go a combined 57-13-9 over her tenure with two CAL Kinney titles and three trips to the Sweet 16 of the playoffs. She leaves High Street with 56 career goals, and also assisted on 33 others.
And she of course went out with another excellent season.
Tykulsky was the only player from our area to be named to the All-State Team by the Eastern Massachusetts Girls Soccer Coaches Association. She was also named First Team All-EMass, along with All-CAL for the second straight year after making the CAL All-Star Second Team list as a sophomore. For the season Tykulsky scored 16 goals with 5 assists, and the quad-captain helped to lead Newburyport (15-2-3) to the CAL Kinney title and to the Round of 16 in the program’s first year up in Division 2.
The crowning moment certainly came in the first round of the playoffs.
Facing a Danvers team that knocked them out of the tournament last year, Tykulsky scored the game-winning goal with 30 seconds left to lift the Clippers to some playoff revenge with a 1-0 victory. It also only took her 40 seconds to score the opening goal in the ALS Cup win over rival Pentucket, which kept the program a perfect 23-0 in the annual game. She poured in a hat-trick against Triton, scored twice against Ipswich, and had other goals against Rockport, Manchester Essex, Hamilton-Wenham, Lynnfield and Essex Tech.
An Honor Roll student, Tykulsky had college offers ranging from Divisions I-III, but will go the club route as she wants to focus more on her studies, which will likely one day lead to law school.