MIDDLETOWN — Ending nearly a two-week layoff, the Middletown Mustangs finally returned to the volleyball court and beat the Upper Lake Cougars 25-20, 25-20, 17-25, 25-20 in a North Central League I interlock match on Tuesday in Middletown.
“I felt like we were starting all over again,” Middletown coach Jennifer Breiner said of the unusually long break between matches. “But we have a bunch of matches coming up.”
The Mustangs committed several hitting errors against the Cougars but still had enough to win the match.
“I wanted them to be aggressive and they were pounding the ball,” Breiner said.
Kayla Robinson led the Mustangs with nine kills, four blocks and two aces. Alexis Rockwell added six kills and two aces.
Breiner praised the play of the Cougars.
“They were good, they were scrappy,” Breiner said. “They didn”t let anything hit the ground.”
Emily Knispel and Katherine Edmonds powered the Cougars. Knispel led the team with 10 kills and six aces while Edmonds added five kills, a team-best three blocks and three aces. Brandy Claunch added 15 assists and Monique Derr had 14 digs.
“I”m encouraged because they keep improving,” Upper Lake coach Sandy Coatney said. “Our enthusiasm was good, our passing was good. We started to come together in this match.”
In other volleyball action Tuesday:
Clear Lake def. Fort Bragg
At Lakeport, the Clear Lake Cardinals spread around the kills while sweeping the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 25-15, 25-23, 25-23.
Jessica Asbury, Vanessa Tullos and Rylie Gabehart had five kills apiece for the Cardinals and Chanel Reese came off the bench to add four.
“Nineteen kills, I”m happy with that,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds said.
Asbury also had three blocks and seven aces, both team highs, for Clear Lake.
“She really had a good match,” said Psalmonds, who also praised the play of Reese off the bench.
“We worked on a lot of things and got some stuff done,” Psalmonds added.
