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Valley Finishes Regular Season with 10 Wins, Ready for Postseason Play

The Valley Regional field Hockey squad wrapped up the regular season last week with a victory against Shoreline Conference foe, Morgan. The Warriors defeated the Huskies in a 2-1 home contest on Oct. 28 in a game that had Shoreline Conference Tournament ramifications. When Westbrook defeated Old Saybrook that same evening, the victory for Valley along with Old Saybrook’s defeat caused a coin flip between the Rams and Warriors for Shoreline seeding. Valley ultimately ended up the No. 4 seed and is set to face off against North Branford in the Shoreline semis on Nov. 4 (after press time) at the Indian River Complex.

The Warriors’ win over Morgan brought their final regular season record to 10-6, which is a pretty impressive mark after the squad’s tough stretch to begin the year. After dropping the first four contests of the season, Valley went 10-2 over the next twelve games. Head Coach Beth McCabe-Powers admits that the early schedule did a number on the Warriors, but one of the biggest keys to their success was learning how to have faith in their ability.

“This particular crew didn’t really believe in themselves as much as I believed in them,” said McCabe-Powers. “When we got off to the slow start, it was a wake-up call. It was a tough beginning of the season. Those were difficult games.”

What helped get the Warriors to begin to believe were a couple of adjustments to the lineup from Coach McCabe-Powers and assistant coach Randy Netsch. Specifically moving junior Taylor Harpin to a different position, seemed to make the team a better unit.

“We moved Taylor from the attack line to right defense and that made a big difference. She really brought us a little bit quicker attack up field starting from the backfield. Taylor has a monster hit,” said McCabe-Powers. “She can hit it really hard and really far. She took to the backfield quite well. Her defensive game has improved since we moved her back there. Sometimes you get lucky by making the right move at the right time, and everything sort of fell into place.”

That adjustment paid dividends in Valley’s 2-1 home win versus Morgan thanks to a goal from Harpin off an assist from senior captain Kate O’Brien. The Warriors got another goal from senior Ruby O’Lynnger on a helper from sophomore Margaret Jacaruso.

O’Lynnger has been a potent offensive presence for Valley leading the team in goals, but Valley’s true strength has been the ability to get goals from a variety of sources.

“We are super balanced this year. Instead of having just two or three people scoring the ball, we have eight or nine people scoring more than one goal,” McCabe-Powers said. “That’s a lot of different people scoring the ball. It’s an advantage because they don’t know who we’re hitting it to any time.”

Even after moving Harpin back, Coach McCabe-Powers has still tweaked the Warriors’ lineup depending on certain matchups because Valley is such a versatile group.

“We hard time nailing down what lineup was going to work best for us. We finally found the magic and then we turned the season around,” said McCabe-Powers. “Of late, we’ve moved Abby Amara from the middle of the field out to the right side of the field. That gives us a potent right side now.”

Maybe the biggest reason that shifting alignments works so well for the Warriors is because the senior captains of the squad are all multi-talented on the pitch. Senior captains Riley Millburne, Elena Peterlik, Grace Proctor, and O’Brien all have played in a variety of spots this year.

“All of the captains are working really hard. They’ve all been super good, no matter how I ask them to change or play,” said McCabe-Powers. “We change depending on who we’re playing, and nobody cares where they are playing, or that they are changing position. I like having the kind of players that can move around.”

The playmaking for the Warriors has been steady as well. Some of that is due to player skill, but the Warriors have found the ability to grind for their goals. too.

“We’re pretty balanced. Riley and Abby have the most assists on the team. We have some really good passing,” McCabe Powers said. “More importantly, we’ve become tenacious in front of the opposing the goal. In other words, we had plenty of pretty goals to go around. We just needed to get more of the gritty ones.”

On defense, the Warriors have been solid throughout the year. Part of that has been the growth of sophomore goalkeeper Margaret Gessner. Gessner is finding her communication skills in the cage and the defense is helping protect her.

“The defense has been solid all season long. Madison Alio has held down left D for us. We’ve also received fantastic contributions from Jacaruso and Grace Haskins. They are both sophomores and doing wonderful job,” said McCabe Powers. “In goal is Margaret Gessner, and that’s been good. It’s a growing experience for Margaret. I think she’s finding her voice, which is tough for a sophomore goaltender. She’s done a good job progressing, and I’m thrilled with how far she’s come.”

The Warriors have a tall task in the Shoreline Tournament going up against No. 1 seed North Branford. The last time both teams met, Valley took a tough loss, but Coach McCabe-Powers is looking forward to facing the Thunderbirds on a turf playing surface.

“We have not played North Branford on turf yet, and we are a turf team. Not literally, but our players’ skills rely on turf skills, and North Branford is more of a grass team,” said McCabe-Powers. “If we do what we’re supposed to, then we have a shot. We’ve been working hard at trying to hone our receiving skills. We had opportunities in our last game that we didn’t capitalize on, and they captialized on everything. The game didn’t really play that lopsided. We’re capable of being the giant slayers; we just have to do it.”

After Shorelines, Valley will head to the Class S State Tournament where Coach McCabe-Powers expects to meet up with Litchfield. The tourney is set to begin on Monday, Nov. 11 and continue until Saturday, Nov. 23.

• The Valley Regional field hockey team’s roster features senior captains Kate O’Brien, Riley Millburne, Elena Peterlik, and Grace Proctor; seniors Madison Alio, Awdrie Carnelli, Jill DeJongh, Ruby O’Lynnger, and Olivia Pelkey; juniors Leah Bargnesi, Lily Gordon, Alex Halsey, Taylor Harpin, Abigail Shakun, Paige Thomas, and Lauren Wiegman; sophomores Mia Alio, Abby Amara, Reagan Fergueson, Margaret Gessner, Caroline Haskins, Grace Haskins, Margaret Jacaruso, Emily Kateley, Brooke Lavigne, Paige Lombardi, Ellie Rybicki-Domler, Lauren Valentino, Kylin Villegas, and Chelsea Wadle; and freshmen Failyn Belisle, Callie Breitenback, Samantha Brookhart-Bardelli, Ashley Cap, Lily Grow, Maizy Libby, Mykenzie Parker, Madeline Rice, Molly Rybicki-Domler, Samara Shankar, and Isabella Siegel.

• Head Coach Beth McCabe-Powers’s coaching staff includes assistant coach Randy Netsch.

• During the regular season, the Warriors earned wins against Somers (6-0 and 6-1), Woodstock Academy (3-1), Haddam-Killingworth (3-0 and 7-1), Morgan (1-0 and 2-1), Litchfield (3-0), Old Saybrook (2-1), and Waterford (4-0). Valley took losses versus East Lyme (1-0), Old Saybrook (2-0), Westbrook (1-0 and 1-0), and North Branford (6-0 and 7-0).