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11/28/2017 11:00 PMSophomore Ava Duval was a key contributor at the striker’s position for the Valley Regional girls’ soccer squad this fall. In her first full season at the varsity level, Ava recorded her first varsity goal and wound up leading the Warriors in scoring by the end of the year. Valley finished the campaign with four wins and six ties to earn a spot in states.
It took a couple of games for Ava to get going on offense, but then she notched the first two goals of her career in a 3-2 victory versus Fitch. It meant a lot to Ava that Head Coach Lloyd Warren and teammates were behind her as she looked to put her name on the scoresheet. She finished the season with six goals.
“The first couple of games, I just wasn’t scoring as much as I wanted to. At first, I got discouraged. Then during the Fitch game, coach gave me a [penalty kick],” Ava says. “He believed in me, and so did my teammates. I scored it, and it was support from him and my teammates that enabled me to do it.”
Coach Warren watched Ava play on the Warriors’ JV squad last year and felt she made the necessary strides to get bumped up to varsity as the season wore on. This fall, Ava earned a starting spot on the varsity squad, and Warren felt she was pressing a bit until she broke the ice by netting a pair of goals in the Fitch victory.
“Freshman year she got some varsity time, but she didn’t score. This year, she was eager to get a score in and get off and running,” Coach Warren says. “She played her strongest game of the year against Fitch, where she scored her first varsity goal. Then she got another one that was one of the best goals of the season. It was a brilliant finish.”
Even though goal scoring has become Ava’s calling card, she still strives to do whatever she can to help her team in general. Ava often looks to either pass or control the ball then and move into an attacking position to create opportunities for her teammates.
“If I don’t face up to players, I like to get the ball over the top. I can use my speed to get past a player, or I’ll look to get the ball up the sideline, so I can cross it over to another player. Maybe I’ll get it back for the shot, but I’m trying to create the opportunity,” says Ava, who lives in Deep River. “Basically, I try to do the things that work best for the team. If it’s the best for the team for me to carry the ball I will, but I also will look for the pass. Whatever works best for the team.”
Ava hones her soccer skills by dedicating herself to the sport on a year-round basis. She plays for New London’s Southeast Soccer Club, which is one of the state’s top programs that focuses on developing young players. It means a lot to Ava that she earned a spot on such a talented roster.
“I think that making the Southeast team was a big accomplishment,” Ava says. “Right now, we’re ranked in the top-100 teams nationally. That’s a really big deal, and that’s a big accomplishment.”
Ava has been playing soccer for several years and, for most of that time, she’s worked alongside Warren, who was the longtime coach for the Valley Soccer Club youth program before stepping into his current post with the Warriors. Ava says it was great news when she heard that Warren was taking the helm at the high school.
“He’s been my coach a long time. I was really happy when I heard he was going to be the high school coach,” says Ava. “He expects a lot out of me and, every year, he expects a little more. So it pushes me to get better and better and better.”
Coach Warren has pushed for consistent improvement in Ava’s game, and she hasn’t disappointed. According to Warren, Ava’s work with the Southeast Soccer Club has paid off, and he looks forward to seeing her grow even more as a player throughout the next few years.
“I’ve worked with Ava for a long time. I trained her when she was much younger, and she played for a couple of teams of mine when she was in the youth soccer program. I was happy when she said she would go down to the Southeast Soccer Club,” says Warren. “I have definitely seen an improvement in the tactical side of her game. She’s aware of what she needs to do, and that’s the most important thing for a player: to be able to self-evaluate and take in what’s being taught them. She has a lot to offer other players, too.”
For her junior season, Ava is aiming to work on using both of her feet effectively, while being tougher against on-ball defenders. Ava feels that as she becomes increasingly more difficult for opponents to deal with, she can open up more scoring chances for her fellow Warriors.
“I’m working on being able to use both my feet a little more. I can use my left foot pretty well, but not as much as my right,” says Ava, who thanks her parents, Brian and Kim Duval, along with Coach Warren, Valley Soccer Club coach Steve Tolley, and Southeast Soccer Club coach Norm Riker. “I’m working on being a little more aggressive on the ball, so it’s harder to get the ball from me and pushing through other players. It’s just a lot of practicing [one on one] and learning to get my hip on them and move around them.”