New York is now at .500 in the Women’s Premier League after defeating Minnesota Valkyries on the road 39-22. It was a much closer match than a week prior, when New York ran up a 56-5 victory on home turf.

New York only traveled with 19 players, and three of four subs were used due to injury. The team doesn’t have a ton of depth this year, so their performance is significantly affected when the top 23 can’t travel.

Even so, New York found success out wide and continually changed direction of attack to avoid the larger Minnesota pack. Wing Vanesha McGee, in her second WPL match this season, was key to the attack and ended the day with four tries. New York continued to work the outside in the second half, and saw Simone Van Saarloos, Katie Brethel and Hannah Rosenthal all dot down by day's end. Kaitlin Ruggiero added four conversions.

“I'm confident we can score from any position on the pitch,” New York assistant coach Heidi Rubestein said. “In the last two games against the Valks, we had 10 different players scoring tries."

The New York defense started to fatigue in the second half, and the Valkyries took full advantage. Tracy Call returned to the lineup at fullback and was a nice addition to the outside attack. Tayo Mafe at inside center strung together some nice runs, and the pack used a series of short-range pick-and-goes to get the ball moving forward. The Valkyries rallied with 17 points in the second after only put up five in the first.

“We were happy with our continuity of play this weekend, both with quick ball at the rucks, as well as our support play off the ball,” Rubenstein added. “Our lineout continued to improve, defensively creating a lot of turnover ball, and our scrum continues to be a strength. We will continue to work on our team defense in the next two weeks before our rematches against the Zons and the Surfers.”

The Twin Cities Amazons beat San Diego 35-0 in Minnesota to take the lead in the WPL Red Conference. With the win, the Zons have taken the lead thanks to their bonus-point loss the weekend prior. New York is not out of range to finish in the top two of the conference, provided they can mount a win against one of the leaders. One of those wins will have to happen on the road against San Diego, which will be a difficult task.