Kelseyville defeats San Leandro in first round of North Coast Section Division 3 playoffs
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KELSEYVILLE >> Dropping the first set proved to be no problem at all as the Kelseyville Knights rallied past the San Leandro Pirates 17-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-22 in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 3 volleyball playoffs Tuesday night at Kelseyville High School.
The sixth-seeded Knights (17-6), champions of the North Central League I, advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals against No. 3 seed St. Joseph Notre Dame (26-6) in Alameda at 7 p.m. St. Joseph Notre Dame eliminated Mt. Eden of Hayward 25-9, 26-24, 25-11 in another first-round match Tuesday. St. Joseph was the runner-up in the Bay Counties East League.
“At midseason I said we were down but not out after losing to Cloverdale and Fort Bragg,” Kelseyville head coach Donelle McCallister said, referring to the Knights’ back-to-back road losses after a 5-0 start in league play. “This team has definitely worked hard to meet their goal they set of winning the league.”
After the two losses, the Knights ran off seven straight league wins, six of them in straight sets, including home victories in their final two regular-season matches against Cloverdale and Fort Bragg.
“Playoffs are icing on the cake and the coaches, student body and community got to watch one final home match with this team,” McCallister said. “That alone is a win.”
Winning the final three sets against the Pirates (16-11), undefeated champions of the West Alameda County-Shoreline League, boiled down to the Knights making fewer errors, and that’s what happened, according to McCallister. Kelseyville made only seven serving errors during the match and only 16 attacking errors.
“Back row defense was the best yet,” McCallister said. “The girls combined for 86 digs.”
Nyejzniya Krohn led the Knights’ offense with 12 kills, including a .320 hitting average. The senior also finished with three blocks and three aces. Bella Patti added seven kills, hitting at a .277 clip, while setter Ashlyn Klein finished with 19 assists and 14 digs.
The Knights also received strong play from Cali Schnabl with a team-leading 21 digs, Olivia Hommer with 17 digs, freshman Riley Hanson with 10 assists, 11 digs, two aces, one block and five kills with no hitting errors (.312 average). Briana Davis added six kills and three blocks.
“They played happy and stayed mentally strong against a team had smart attackers from left, middle and right,” McCallister.
Kelseyville is one of two Lake County teams and one of five NCL I teams participating in the postseason. The other four, including Middletown, are in action Wednesday night in the Division 4 (Middletown and Cloverdale) and Division 5 (St. Helena and Fort Bragg) playoffs. Middletown travels to Urban High School in San Francisco for a 7 p.m. match with the Blues. The winner of that match travels to Napa on Saturday for a 7 p.m. game with No. 1 seed Vintage High School.
