Clear Lake, Upper Lake, Lower Lake volleyball squads fall at home
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> The Kelseyville Knights have hit a bump in the road since winning their first five North Central League I varsity volleyball matches.
Kelseyville (5-2) dropped its second straight road match against a contending team on Tuesday night, falling in five sets to the NCL I defending-champion Fort Bragg Timberwolves. Kelseyville was up two sets to one in the best-of-five match when the Timberwolves rallied for a 25-15, 23-25, 27-29, 25-12, 15-7 victory.
Fort Bragg (4-3) snapped a three-match losing streak in the process.
“The girls worked hard,” Kelseyville head coach Donelle McCallister said. “I am responsible as the coach for the loss. It is my job to put the pieces in place and it just wasn’t’ working.”
No individual statistics were reported.
“We may be down but we are not out,” McCallister said with an eye toward the second half of the Knights’ league schedule, which begins Thursday when they host the Lower Lake Trojans (0-8). Junior varsity action begins at 5 p.m.
In JV action Tuesday, the Kelseyville Knights won their second straight three-set match, both times after dropping the opening set, beating Fort Bragg 23-25, 25-16, 15-8.
“The team played a solid game,” McCallister said of the Knights, who wrapped up the first half of their league schedule with a perfect 7-0 record.
Meghan Renfro served up 10 aces to help rally the Knights. Brooklyn Young finished with 12 assists and Aubree Sperber and Olivia Bushey had had six kills.
In other NCL I action Tuesday:
Middletown def. Clear Lake
At Lakeport, the Middletown Mustangs made quick work of the Clear Lake Cardinals in a battle of 3-3 teams, winning 25-14, 25-18, 27-25. Middletown trailed 24-19 in the third set before rallying to sweep the match.
“The girls really came together tonight,” Middletown head coach Erika Galvan said. “They kept level-headed. They didn’t let a few errors get to them and moved on to win.”
Mia Hoogendoorn led the way with 11 kills, seven digs and 12 service points, including five aces. Setter Isa Barnes had 24 assists to go along with 14 service points, four aces and one block. Carly Johnson added six kills and five blocks.
“We had a tough time with our offense throughout the whole match, which impacted our performance,” Clear Lake head coach Izzy Short said.
Aniya Jauregui’s four kills and four aces were among the Clear Lake highlights. Others were three blocks, two kills and four aces by Lindee Bingham, four kills and two aces from Violet Stewart, and two aces by Atiana Patino.
Clear Lake falls to 3-4 in league play.
Middletown plays its first home of the season Thursday against league-leading Cloverdale (7-1). Clear Lake hits the road to take on St. Helena (5-2).
In the JV match, Middletown beat Clear Lake 25-21, 24-26, 15-12 to improve to 5-2 in the league standings.
Hailey Williams had eight service points, including three aces, and seven digs for Middletown while Bridget Lisenbee had 15 assists, nine digs and five service points. Izzi Hoogendoorn led the Mustangs at the net with 10 kills.
“The Mustangs battled it out,” Galvan said. “We struggled with serving tonight. It doesn’t help you when you miss 16 serves throughout the night.”
Ashlynn Cruz’s eight kills and three aces led the Cardinals (4-3). Jazmine Wiebusch added six assists and three aces, Avery Fiske and Kiara Hopkins both had four kills and two aces while Aliyah Valadez had six digs and two aces.
“The girls struggled with communication throughout the match,” Short said. “They fought hard for everything in the second set, but unfortunately they couldn’t maintain that momentum in the third set.”
St. Helena def. Upper Lake
At Upper Lake, the only thing worse than losing a five-set match is losing at home with almost no fan support. That’s what happened to the Upper Lake Cougars as the St. Helena Saints prevailed 25-27, 25-13, 18-25, 25-19, 15-11.
“Despite our best efforts, we unfortunately fell short in the end,” Upper Lake head coach Dani Paige Gudmundson said. “The atmosphere in the gym was not at the level you would expect for a homecoming game. It was empty.”
It the fourth five-set loss for Upper Lake (1-7) this season.
Alyssa John’s 12 digs, 11 kills and eight service points powered Upper Lake. Hope Marcks added 10 assists and nine service points, Aimee Schaefers had 10 digs, 10 blocks, seven kills and nine service points, and Alyson Gomez finished with eight digs and eight service points.
Upper Lake travels to Fort Bragg on Friday. JV action begins at 5 p.m.
St. Helena beat Upper Lake 23-25, 25-19, 15-7 in the JV match. Abigail Suzor had five blocks, two kills and one ace for the Cougars while Riley Jones added three digs, two kills and two aces.
“The girls came out looking good tonight,” Upper Lake head coach Fawn Rave said of the team’s play in the first set. “They were working together, talking and moving on the court great. We went point for point and the girls all did great.”
Upper Lake is now 0-8 in league play.
Cloverdale def. Lower Lake
At Lower Lake, the league-leading Cloverdale Eagles lengthened their lead in the NCL I standings with a 25-11, 25-18, 25-23 win over the Lower Lake Trojans.
Cloverdale improved to 7-1 and now owns a 1 ½-game lead over Kelseyville and St. Helena, both 5-2.
“After the first set the girls rallied to play better,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said. “We got off to a shaky start, then settled down a little more.”
Brooke Benson’s nine kills and two blocks powered Lower Lake (0-7). Izabela Hernanez added four service points, and Jamiya Lee-Ayers had two blocks.
Lower Lake travels to Kelseyville on Thursday. JV action begins at 5 p.m.
Cloverdale won the JV match in straight sets (scores not reported).
