SWANTON — Strong defense and goaltending by the Missisquoi Valley girls’ soccer team held visiting Middlebury Union High School to one first-half goal on Tuesday, but the Tigers pulled away for a 4-0 victory Tuesday despite 19 saves from Thunderbird keeper Madison Conley.
Ivy Doran gave Middlebury a 1-0 lead with 18:47 left in the opening half, the only shot Conley would let by before the break. Doran then converted a Michelle Skovsgaard assist two minutes into the second half as the Tigers began to take charge.
Assistant coach Ron Vincent said MVU’s defense had a good game: “Middlebury had some nice passes and a couple of nice touch passes, and those are hard to defend. But the defense played well.” 
MUHS Coach Wendy Leeds said her Tigers left some goals on the table by failing to finish good set-ups and hit the corners, but she was pleased with some elements of her team’s performance.
“We were able to execute some things that we’ve been working on, like one-touch passing, triangles of support, and pass-backs to the goalkeeper,” Leeds said.
MVU forwards Brianna Parent, Bailey Bergeron and Mercedes Slack made runs but couldn’t work past enough of the Middlebury defense to get good shots. Tiger first-half goalie Carly Burger did not make a save, and in the second half Julia Bartlett stopped two shots.
With 13 minutes left Ada Anderson went one-on-one against Conley and slipped one past her to make it 3-0.
T-Bird Bartlett made back-to-back saves with 7:55 to go. Leeds called the second one spectacular: “(She) went corner to corner and slid to keep a toe-poked ball from rolling into her opposite low corner.”
Alice Ganey finished the scoring with 1:55 left, and Isadora Luksch assisted both hers and Anderson’s strikes.
Conley made diving saves throughout the game.
“Unbelievable, like usual,” Vincent said. “She is just amazing and some of the stuff she comes up with just blows your mind. She is the best goalie in the league by far.”