Kelseyville volleyball beats Montgomery to finish third in section tournament
Lake County Sports on Facebook
SANTA ROSA >> The Kelseyville Knights are headed home, but they’re very much alive in the postseason picture.
Coming off a 25-14, 23-25, 25-11, 25-23 win over Montgomery High School in the North Coast Section Division 4 third-place match Saturday night in Santa Rosa, the Kelseyville Knights (22-9) earned the No. 6 seed Sunday in the 16-team NorCal Division 5 bracket of the CIF State Volleyball Championships and will host KIPP King High School (16-1) of San Lorenzo in a first-round match Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Kelseyville, the co-champion in the North Central League I this season, is playing another league champion in the No. 11 Lions, the undefeated winners of the 11-team BASSAC.
The Kelseyville-KIPP King winner draws the winner of a first-round match Tuesday between No. 3 Escalon (16-15) and No. 14 Wonderful College Prep Academy (28-8) in Thursday’s quarterfinals at the home site of the highest surviving seed.
Kelseyville needed a win over Montgomery to clinch an at-large berth in the NorCal playoffs and the Knights delivered with their third victory in four section matches, all of them against much larger high schools. Their only loss came to Urban School of San Francisco in the semifinals (Urban beat Convent of the Sacred Heart in five sets to win the sectional championship on Saturday night). All four of the Knights’ section matches were decided in four sets. Kelseyville and Urban won’t meet in the NorCals because the Blue were elevated to Division 4 as the No. 14 seed.
Kelseyville absolutely dominated Montgomery in the first and third sets Saturday night. The Knights fell behind 14-6 in the second set before battling back to tie it up at 22-22. However, the Vikings were able to pull out a 25-23 win. Likewise, the fourth set had plenty of suspense late. Kelseyville led 22-18 and had a chance to win the set and match up 24-22, but the Knights dropped a point to the Vikings, making it 24-23. Kelseyville then sealed the deal by winning a brief back-and-forth exchange at the net on match point.
Kelseyville last appeared in the NorCals in 2018.
“They say it takes a village and the Kelseyville varsity volleyball team has one,” Kelseyville head coach Donelle McCallister said. “Thank you to our families and friends, our KHS staff, principal Mike Jones, athletic director Kc White and superintendent Dr. Nick Thomas. What a ride it has been!”
Nearly the entire Knights roster played a part in the team’s latest win. AJ Wurm led the team with 28 digs and three aces, Bella Patti added 25 digs, and both Olivia Bushey and Riley Hanson finished with 11 kills. Hanson also had 14 assists and three aces.
Other contributors were Madeline Borghesani with 19 assists, Mati Mateer with eight kills and two aces, Jordyn Wurm with six kills, Madi Byrne with five kills and nine digs, Liberty Lewis with six digs and one ace, and Grace Hobbs with four digs.
“I’m proud of how hard these girls worked,” McCallister said. “It’s been a long season and they have demonstrated the dedication needed to achieve these wins.”
