LOWER LAKE — Tashee Denson had a huge block to stave off a match point and the Lower Lake Trojans, down 14-11 in the fifth and final game, rallied to beat the Kelseyville Knights 15-25, 25-13, 21-25, 25-21, 16-14 in a North Central League I North varsity volleyball match on Tuesday night in Lower Lake.
Lower Lake setter Christine Powers, who sat out the first two games for disciplinary reasons, served out the match as the Trojans (4-2) thrust themselves back into the North title picture. They travel to Willits (4-1) on Thursday with a chance to move atop the standings, having already beaten the Wolverines once this season.
“It was a huge win,” Lower Lake coach Danessa Udy said. “They (Knights) were so strong for so long. Now we”re back in it (the race).”
Middletown is 3-2 and Kelseyville 3-3 in the North standings.
Denson finished with 10 kills and three blocks, Amber Daniels added five kills and four aces, and Veronica Wilder had four kills for the Trojans.
Mirella Valencia filled in for Powers at setter the first two games and played well, according to Udy.
“For someone who hasn”t played much at that position, she did great,” Udy said.
“Lower Lake doesn”t give up and they did a very good job,” Kelseyville coach Donelle McCallister said.
Skyler Olsen paced the Knights with 10 kills and Kendra Schwegerl had nine. Kyra Rudnick and Sarah Johnson led the Knights with 10 and nine digs, respectively.
In other volleyball action Tuesday:
Willits def. Upper Lake
At Upper Lake, even without their setter (sick with the flu), the NCL I North-leading Willits Wolverines bested the Upper Lake Cougars 25-17, 25-16, 27-25 in interlock volleyball action.
“The frustrating part is we had the lead in every game,” said Upper Lake coach Sandy Coatney, who missed all of last week with the flu. “We were capitalizing on their mistakes, but then we would make mistakes and not be able to recover.”
Monique Derr led the Cougars in kills (four) and in digs. Emily Knispel added three kills, two blocks and four aces and Rebecca Swaney had three kills. Setter Brandy Claunch contributed 10 assists.
“They did play better,” Coatney said of the Cougars. “Hopefully we can finish strong.”
Girls” soccer
Clear Lake 1, St. Helena 1 (tie)
At Lakeport, the Clear Lake Cardinals and St. Helena Saints battled to a 1-1 draw in the Cardinals” NCL I South finale.
Clear Lake (2-4-2, 8-10-3) can do no better than fourth place in the league standings regardless of what happens in other South games on Thursday, the final day of the regular season. The Cardinals close with a home interlock game against Lower Lake.
“We had the ball at their end a lot, we just didn”t finish,” Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea said.
St. Helena scored the only goal in the first half. Logan Brodnansky tied the game with a shot seven minutes into the second half.
“We really controlled the game, controlled everything except putting the ball in the net,” Larrea added.
Clear Lake will apply for an at-large berth in next week”s North Coast Section playoffs.
“It”s kind of a long shot, but we”ll send in the paperwork and see what happens,” Larrea said.
Clear Lake has reached the postseason in each of the last 14 seasons.
Cloverdale 2, Upper Lake 1
At Cloverdale, Cloverdale snapped a 1-1 tie midway through the second half to beat the Upper Lake Cougars in NCL I South action.
Cloverdale took a 1-0 lead into the second half. Yessica Ayala”s goal, assisted by Shayla Wyman, knotted the score at 1.
“They scored about 10 minutes later,” Upper Lake coach Mike Sheets said.
The Cougars (0-7, 7-9) had multiple scoring opportunities but couldn”t take advantage, according to Sheets.
“We were moving it, but we didn”t have the officials” support,” Sheets said.
Upper Lake keeper Annie Martinez had 13 saves. The Cougars also received strong defense from sweeper Amber Sheets and stopper Laura Wold.
Upper Lake hosts St. Helena in its South and season finale Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Boys” soccer
Middletown 5, Lower Lake 2
At Middletown, Juan Fernandez and Brendan Skinner each scored two goals and the Middletown Mustangs won their first NCL I North game, avenging a 3-1 loss earlier this season to the Lower Lake Trojans.
“The whole team played a good game,” Middletown coach Jivan Dicovski said. “This is the same Lower Lake team we played and lost to. The difference this time was converting the one-on-ones. The first time we played them we had like five one-on-ones in the first half and didn”t make any of them. Today we put them in.”
Middletown (1-6) jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 4-1 after the first half.
Myles Moffat also scored for the Mustangs.
Fernandez had two assists and Shawn Fromer one.
Middletown hits the road Thursday to take on Willits in the North finale for both teams.
St. Helena 9, Clear Lake 2
At Lakeport, the Clear Lake Cardinals wrapped up their NCL I South schedule by losing to the Saints.
Clear Lake (2-4-2, 3-7-2) put up a spirited fight early on and trailed only 3-2 after the first half.
“We gave them good competition in the first half,” Clear Lake coach Cris Cortez said. “In the second half for some reason we didn”t play well. We had only two players on the bench and that might have been part of it.”
Juan Alvarado scored off a rebound and Nate Secrest scored on a flip throw in the first half for Clear Lake.
The Cardinals close out their season at home Thursday against Lower Lake.
JV girls” soccer
Clear Lake 2, St. Helena 0
At St. Helena, the Clear Lake junior varsity girls” soccer team wrapped up another successful season by shutting out the St. Helena Saints.
Amely Ballesteros and Kristy Hayes scored for the Cardinals, who close out the 2009 campaign at 10-4-1.
Emily Norwood and Alyssa O”Donnell had assists in the season finale.
“They played very well,” Clear Lake coach Alice Holmes said. “They”ve had a great season.”
