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11/10/2019 11:00 PMThe Valley Regional volleyball team pulled off a spectacular upset to claim the Shoreline Conference crown for the first time since 1983. The Warriors entered the Shoreline Conference Tournament as the No. 6 and took the top-seeded Hale-Ray to five sets and triumphed with a narrow 15-13 victory in the final frame. Valley did not enjoy a single home contest in the entire tournament and had to make its way through No. 3 seed Cromwell in the quarterfinal by a score of 3-2 (17-25, 25-19, 17-25, 25-17, 15-12), No. 2 seed Coginchaug in the semifianl by a score of 3-1 (25-9, 25-17, 17-25, 25-0), and No. 1 seed Hale-Ray in the final. Valley finished the year with a banner and an overall record of 10-13 on the season.
Head Coach Kathy Scott was proud of her team for shocking the crowd at The Morgan School gym with a 3-2 (13-25, 25-17, 17-25, 26-24, 15-13) victory on Nov. 8. Perhaps most of all though, she was glad to get some more signage for the Warriors’ volleyball squad back at the Valley Regional gym.
“It feels really amazing. Because we have these banners like this around. Two years ago we were in the Shoreline finals against H-K for the first time in a long, long time but that didn’t work out,” said Coach Scott. “We went okay so you see this banner it’s from 1983. That’s the last time we got the Shoreline. It’s getting yellow because it’s so old. We talked about it again this year, and so this just feels great.”
After turning in a regular season mark of 7-13, the Warriors were slotted into the No. 6 seed in the bracket, but still were determined to give it their best shot in the Tournament. Senior captain Mackenzie Neviaser said that she and her teammates were ready to defy expectations in the tourney.
“I think that we thought that maybe everyone was like, ‘oh it’s a given,’” said Neviaser. “We knew that we were just going to push as hard as we can, and we were going to make sure that we would fight no matter what seed we were.”
Valley definitely fought for every point it tallied. Against Hale-Ray, the Warriors trailed 2-1 heading into the fourth set. That set proved pivotal as Valley even had to come back from the brink down 19-13. At that juncture, the Warriors rattled off six straight points to tie the set, and then still fell back 22-19 before tying at 22-22. Valley proceeded to take a 24-22 lead, but Hale-Ray came back to draw it even at 24-all. The Warriors got over the hump with two more points to take the 26-24 win to force a fifth set.
Coach Scott thought that her athletes’ performance epitomized the type of team that they decided to be toward the latter stages of the regular season. The Warriors called themselves by an interesting moniker of a SAD team, but that acronym wasn’t as morose as it sounded.
“We showed a lot of passionate play. It was SAD. We did that a couple of weeks ago. We asked the team what we wanted to be known as. When they leave our gym, what do we want them to say about us?” said Coach Scott. “So we sat down a listed out a bunch of things and narrowed it down to those three: scrappy, aggressive, and determined. Then, we made the acronym.”
That acronym came directly into play during the pivotal fourth and fifth sets of the contest according to senior captain Carlee Kirla.
“It’s a big joke around the team because no one else knows what it means,” said Kirla. “It feels good to have a little reliever on the court when there’s tension.”
Even after the rousing comeback in the fourth set, Valley still stumbled a bit in the fifth starting out by trailing Hale-Ray 4-0, but the Warriors scored eight straight for an 8-4 advantage and never trailed again. The Noises drew close when the score came to 13-12 and to 14-13 in Valley’s favor, but ultimately the Warriors were able to put it away with a 15-13 final.
Trailing was never a problem according to Neviaser because the Warriors were used to that. They played a lot of close matches including several five setters, so the pressure cooker didn’t seem to faze the Valley athletes.
“Throughout the season, there were a lot of games where we were down a lot, but we would just push and come back,” said Neviaser. “So we knew we could do it. There was no doubt in our mind that if we just fight, we could make it.”
Coach Scott believed that her team had enough of losing five set matches, and just finally decided that there was no way the Warriors would lose this one against Hale-Ray.
“During the season, we had a lot of close sets. There were a lot of five setters, and we lost a lot of five setters. This is the one to win,” Coach Scott said. “We played a five setter against Hale-Ray, and we lost. It was time for us to win those. We have the experience, it was our time to win.”
The Warriors received some big-time performances against Hale-Ray including 10 kills, 11 digs, 15 receptions and three aces from junior Ava Boyles. Junior Alena Crosby tallied 19 assists, two aces, and a kill. Kirla supplied 21 receptions, 17 digs, two blocks, two kills, and an assist, while fellow senior captain Mackenzie Neviaser totaled four kills, four digs, and a block. Senior libero Mahi Shah stepped up her play for 46 receptions, 40 digs, two aces, and an assist, and sophomore Madison Neviaser added 12 digs and 11 receptions. Junior Jamie Pullin had six kills, five digs, and two receptions, and senior Madden Riley added two kills, two blocks, and four digs.
In 2017, Captains Kirla and Neviaser were sophomores on one of the best Valley volleyball squads in recent memory. That team was a top seed in this same tournament after a 17-3 regular season. To be able to hoist the Shoreline trophy felt pretty sweet for the pair.
“To me, this feels great. I’ve been on varsity since my sophomore year, and we made it to finals then and didn’t win it. This feels so good to finish out my senior year this way,” Kirla said. “We really had a carefree attitude coming into it, and it was good to see the outcome. I thought it felt so good just because the past few years have been building years, and we’ve come so close. This year we just all put it together, and we just communicated so well.”
• The Valley Regional volleyball squad’s roster includes senior captains Carlee Kirla and Mackenzie Neviaser; seniors Madden Riley and Mahi Shah; juniors Ava Boyles, Alena Crosby, Emma Counter, and Jamie Pullin, sophomores Emi Bisson, Chase Conrad, Salmi Miller, Madison Neviaser, Cede Peno, and Ella Pittman.
• Kathy Scott is in her 13th season as the Warriors’ head coach. Scott’s coaching staff includes assistant coach Christine Miller and JV coach Geane Giordano.
• The Warriors’ wins this season have come against Old Lyme (3-1 and 3-0), North Branford (3-1 and 3-0), Morgan (3-0 and 3-0), East Hampton (3-1), Cromwell (3-2), Coginchaug (3-1), and Hale-Ray (3-2). Valley has taken losses versus Fitch (3-0), Waterford (3-1), Coginchaug (3-2 and 3-1), Cromwell (3-1 and 3-0), East Hampton (3-2), Haddam-Killingworth (3-2 and 3-1), Hale-Ray (3-2 and 3-1), East Lyme (3-1), and Griswold (3-0).