By MARTY JAMES martyjames.sports@gmail.com

The Napa Valley College women's soccer team concluded its 2023 fall season, traveling to Mendocino College in Ukiah and battling to a 2-2 tie in a Bay Valley Conference match on Nov. 9.

The Storm (5-8-2 overall, 4-6-2 Bay Valley) finishes the conference season in fifth place.

Napa Valley and Mendocino were tied 1-1 at halftime.

Each team scored a goal in the second half. Annie Sanchez, a freshman forward, scored the Storm's first goal, coming at the 3-minute mark of the game. The assist went to Riann Palomo, a freshman center half.

Mendocino scored the next two goals of the game.

Napa Valley tied it, at the 90-minute mark, on a goal by Areli Ramirez-Ruiz, a sophomore defender. The assist went to Palomo.

Ariel Nunez had six saves at goal keeper for the Storm.

* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.