LOWER LAKE — Winning the final three games, the Lower Lake Trojans moved into a virtual tie for first place with the Kelseyville Knights on Thursday night in a key North Central League I North varsity volleyball match at Lower Lake.
Lower Lake”s 16-25, 25-14, 25-18, 27-25 victory prevented Kelseyville (6-1) from clinching the outright NCL I North championship. Now the Knights need to win their league finale Tuesday night at home against Middletown to clinch no worse than a tie for the title.
Lower Lake (5-1) finishes up league play next week with a road match Tuesday at Willits and a home match Thursday against Middletown.
“They were good, no doubt about it,” Kelseyville coach Deanna Goff said of the Trojans, who the Knights beat in a five-game marathon back on Oct. 16 at Kelseyville. “But this loss means absolutely nothing to us, we”re still tied for first.”
After dominating the first game against the Trojans, the Knights struggled the rest of the evening, especially at the service line where they committed 14 errors.
A call by the officials at the end of game four upset the Knights, who thought they had won 25-23. Leading 24-23 and serving for the game, Kelseyville appeared to have won the game after a Lower Lake player was called for four hits by the up official. However, after the up and down officials discussed the four-hit call, it was decided to replay the point, which the Trojans won to tie the game at 24. They went on to win 27-25.
“The down ref said something to the up ref and they changed the call,” Goff said. “The up ref had already called the game and told the players to go to the back line (in preparation for the start of game five). Once you call a game, that”s it. It”s OK to change a play call during a game, but not a game call. It was bad.”
“I didn”t ask for an explanation,” Lower Lake coach Danessa Udy said. “I was just happy they decided to replay the point. I was ready to go five games.”
Darlena White turned in one of her better performances of the season for Lower Lake, registering 11 kills and six aces with no service errors. “She had a wonderful night,” Udy said.
Amber Shoffeitt added seven kills and six aces and Renita Gilliam had five blocks for Lower Lake.
Kaitlyn Goff led Kelseyville with 11 kills and 14 digs, Skyler Olson had nine points, two aces, 1 ? blocks and eight digs, and Jodi Snider added 20 digs, nine points and two aces.
“Kelseyville played so incredibly well,” Udy said. “My girls started slow. They knew what it (the match) meant and they had trouble harnessing all that energy the first game. We played more level-headed after that.”
