Thus far in the season, the Warriors' girls' soccer squad has seen its fair share of tough opponents, yet second-year Head Coach Yves Noiset is pleased with how well his team is playing as of late after Valley's slow start. Last week, Valley won twice and earned a tie to improve to 3-2-3.

On Sept. 22, the Warriors faced Old Saybrook, a team that shared the state title last fall and with which Valley tied with last season.

"I had seen them play and felt that we had a reasonable chance to beat them, yet they are well-coached and do have some good players. They graduated some very good players last year, including their goalkeeper and center back, who were outstanding. We had also graduated a good goalkeeper and center back [Kiernan Decker and Michaela Lavy, respectively]," said Noiset.

Noiset felt his team outplayed Saybrook for portions of the match, but the Warriors could not create enough quality chances to get a goal. In the second half, after the Rams mounted an attack on Valley's goal, the Warriors had a defensive miscue in front of their net and scored a goal on themselves with about 25 minutes to go. With just over five minutes left to play, after getting a number of opportunities close to the Rams' goal and coming up empty, Sydney Lee, a forward who had dropped by well into the midfield, launched a shot from quite a distance out, which went over the Old Saybrook keeper's head and went into the net to tie the contest at 1-1 and send the game into overtime.

In the first overtime, Ashley Sherman scored on a great shot from a distance to give Valley the lead. Sherman scored again a short time later on a similar shot to put Valley up 3-1.

The game went to the second overtime and, a few minutes in, Old Saybrook's Olivia Hills went down with an injury. After a long wait to play again, Saybrook scored quickly and it was now 3-2 with several minutes still to play. Saybrook then scored the equalizer and the game finished tied 3-3.

"It was difficult for our team to swallow, but we will learn from it and move forward," said Noiset.

On Sept. 27 versus North Branford, Sherman gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead early and took the lead into halftime.

Valley continued to create chances in the second half with Sherman breaking in alone twice during the half, the Warriors could not score a goal until a cross from Caitlyn Kelly found Ashley Joia in front of the net. Joia got ahold of a bouncing ball and Valley was suddenly up 2-0. The Warriors continued their offensive thrust and again moved the ball well from one side to the other and, this time, a Kayleigh Caulfield cross found Jill Cayer, who had come in from her left midfield position and made herself open in the box. Cayer finished her opportunity to put Valley up 3-0..

"We played all of our players in this game and, I must say, all contributed. We both attacked and defended reasonably well," said Noiset. "The defense, led by Mikki Rutan and Mary Hope Gardner, kept North Branford at bay. Morgan Bakoledis in goal was only required to make one save, though she did come out on a few long balls by North Branford to stymie any possibility of an attack by kicking balls out of play."

On Sept. 30, the Warriors (3-2-3) handily defeated Westbrook 6-1. Valley had 15 shots on goal while Westbrook managed just three. Sherman scored two goals while Joia, Lee, Rutan, and Hannah Robertson all contributed goals, as well.

"We continue to try to fine tune our lineup for what will be some difficult games in the second half of our schedule," said Noiset. "Valley has tied some games that we might have won, but now we are fighting to try to get back to the middle of the Shoreline pack. If we can do that, we may still have a chance to get to a Shoreline playoff. At this point, with the slow start that we had, every game counts."