STAR VALLEY – It was a week of ups and downs for the Pinedale High School varsity girls soccer team as it earned a victory over Rawlins last week before dropping a loss to a talented Star Valley program on Tuesday.

Last Friday, the Lady Wranglers ventured to Rawlins, where the Pinedale bunch came out strong against the Lady Outlaws.

Through dominating ball possession, the Lady Wranglers allowed Rawlins only two shots on the goal the entire length of the competition. Pinedale’s one and only goal of the game came when senior Heidi Nutt sent a cross over that sophomore Darbie Paulson was able to send into the back of the net.

Overall, the head coach was more than pleased with her team’s effort to pick up a win.

“Varsity had a great game,” Adam said. “This was just a great game all around by the whole team.”

Player of the game was given to sophomore May Que, as she put up a strong defensive effort throughout the game and played a big role in assisting the team with earning the win.

Paulson and senior Claire Stough both finished with three shots on the goal, while senior McKenna Legerski added a pair. As a team, Pinedale finished with eight shots on goal. Senior goalkeeper River Dauwen had a strong game in the goal, finishing with two saves throughout the match.

The team took the excitement from the win into its next game this past Tuesday against Star Valley on the road. This time around, however, the team was tasked with restricting a much more powerful Lady Braves program.

Pinedale struggled to keep possession of the ball long enough to make a scoring attempt come to fruition, Adam said. All the while, Star Valley began racking up goals that were difficult for the Lady Wranglers to combat.

“(We) could not get possession for long enough to get many solid attacks against Star Valley,” Adam said. “There were good parts to the game but it seemed we were mentally just not there.”

Following the tough match, Star Valley was able to pick up a 5-0 victory. Adam said she saw things out on the field that the team will take back to practice to iron out.

“We have some goals to work on and change,” she said. “We did try some younger players in a few different positions (in the) second half to see what our options are in the future.”

The coach was pleased with the effort that came from Nutt, stating the senior seemed to always be in the right place at the right time and even came within inches of a goal.

One big takeaway from the loss, Adam noted, was improving communication out on the field.

“With some more communication on the field we should have a much better outcome Thursday,” she noted. “Defense and offense played very well, but we struggled with our transitions some and just could not get any good shots off.”

The team took on Riverton on Thursday and host Lander in Pinedale on Tuesday, April 25, at 3 p.m. A full recap of the two games will be in next Friday’s Roundup.