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Oct 14, 2024

WRV girls lose sectional soccer title to Vincennes Rivet | Sports | suncommercial.com

SULLIVAN — A phenomenal season for the White River Valley girls soccer team came to a halt on Saturday at Sullivan Middle School as the Wolverines lost a tough 2-1 heartbreaker in two overtimes to

SULLIVAN — A phenomenal season for the White River Valley girls soccer team came to a halt on Saturday at Sullivan Middle School as the Wolverines lost a tough 2-1 heartbreaker in two overtimes to Vincennes Rivet in the Class 1A Sectional 46 championship game.

It was the first and only loss of the season for head coach April Settles' squad, who finished the year with a 14-1-1 overall record.

"I'm extremely proud of the girls," Settles said. "They fought hard all season, many of them through injuries. Playing short with numbers, everybody had to play a lot of minutes for us, but they played hard. They played with class. They played with heart the entire year, and I wish we could have got that for them this year."

Bre Oliver gave White River Valley a 1-0 lead at the 35:23 mark of the first half via a successful penalty kick, and that was the score at the intermission.

Both of Rivet's goals on the day came from Lissa Willis. One was at 60:47 of the second half to tie the game at 1-1 and then with 20.7 seconds left in the first of the two seven-minute overtime period to give the Patriots a 2-1 edge.

The Wolverines had two shots while goalie Leia Fulford logged a pair of saves in net. Rivet mustered eight shots on goal, and goalie Alli Stearns came up with saves in net.

"The five seniors (Oliver, Reese Graves, Brynna Walton, Emeling Baltondano, Anika Jeffers) have left their mark on this program, and the program is better because they were involved in it," Settles said. "We're going to miss them. I told the underclassmen to take a look at Rivet. 'If that's what you want, we have to work hard in the offseason next summer and come out here and get it'."

Settles said the program has to have new leaders step up, play hard, and lead in the future.

"We only have one junior (Ella Welsh). She'll be a senior next year," Settles said. "Great kid. We have to continue to come together as a family, grow the program, and someday, this is going to be ours."

Patriots head coach John Anderson said he couldn't ask for anything more than Saturday's outcome, and he commended Willis for her outing as well as Stearns and the team's defenders

He said the girls have been going at this since June and that they worked hard and deserved it.

"It means a lot," Anderson said. "They got us earlier this year. We were injured at that time when we played them, so we came back and had all of our numbers with us, and that helped us out. It's been five years since we won a sectional, and it's nice to see these girls help rebuild our program."

Rivet improved to 12-5-1 with the victory, and they will host Providence in semi-regional tournament play starting Wednesday.

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