Pictured: Valley Regional celebrated its Senior Night on Oct. 20 with a three-set sweep of East Hampton … and cake. The Warriors’ seniors are captains Salmi Miller, Madison Neviaser, Emi Bisson and Chase Conrad, and Ella Pitman and Esha Shah. (Contributed Photo)

Defending champion Haddam-Killingworth, after opening the season with 12 straight victories, is the top seed for the Shoreline Conference volleyball tournament.

H-K (15-2 overall) and No. 2 seed East Hampton (12-5) have first-round byes in the six-team tourney, which starts Monday with a pair of first-round matches: No. 4 Coginchaug (12-5) hosting No. 5 Valley Regional (10-8) at 4pm, and No. 3 Hale-Ray (11-6) hosting No. 6 Old Lyme (10-8) at 6pm.

In the semifinals Nov. 3, H-K will host the Valley/Coginchaug winner (5:30) and East Hampton will host either Old Lyme or Hale-Ray at 6:30pm.

The championship will be played Nov. 5 at Morgan in Clinton (6pm).

The Cougars have played consistently well this season behind seniors Jessica Timothy and Audrey Snyder and junior Kaleigh Bodak.

Their unbeaten run through 12 matches ended with a four-set loss against Coginchaug. After ripping off three straight wins, the Cougars lost to Valley in five sets. Both losses came on the road.

Valley has played well of late under new coach and former Warriors player Sofi Cullina, winning six of seven and posting back-to-back wins over East Hampton and H-K. The Warriors won the 2019 Shoreline championship.

Hale-Ray secured the third seed by owning the head-to-head tiebreaker with Coginchaug.

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