LOWER LAKE — The Lower Lake Trojans and Middletown Mustangs went toe to toe in a North Central League I North volleyball match on Tuesday night in Lower Lake, where the Trojans emerged with a 25-22, 34-32, 25-19 victory in their league finale.
Lower Lake (5-3) clinches no worse than second place in the league standings with the win. Middletown (3-4) has one match remaining at Willits on Thursday. The Trojans finish up the regular season with an interlock contest Thursday at home against Clear Lake.
“It was pretty close,” Lower Lake coach Danessa Udy said of the hard-fought win. “We tried to give it away in the first game with our service errors, but they had some too.”
Amber Daniels had five kills and Christine Powers, Tashee Denson and April White added four kills apiece. Denson and White led the Trojans with three blocks each.
“We also had some great passes from Sara (Burns) and Amber Daniels,” Udy said.
Lower Lake fell to Middletown in five games during the first league meeting last month in Middletown.Jenny McGee”s 11 kills and three aces paced the Mustangs and Haley Tallman added six kills and five aces. Sara Tucker had 16 assists and two kills.
“They played well, we just made mistakes at the wrong times … bad timing,” Middletown coach Jennifer Breiner said.
One of Middletown”s starters quit the team and departed the court before the start of the third game, according to Breiner.
In other volleyball action Tuesday:
Kelseyville def. St. Vincent
At Kelseyville, the Kelseyville Knights didn”t need long to beat the St. Vincent Mustangs in NCL I interlock action.
“The girls have found their groove and are really playing well right now,” Kelseyville coach Donelle McCallister said.
Kelseyville setter Chelsea DeJohn had 25 assists and two blocks. Ashley Mueller led the team with eight kills and Skyler Olsen had seven. Kendra Schwegerl added five aces.
Sarah Johnson had a solid match passing the ball, according to McCallister.
Kelseyville wraps up its league and regular-season schedule at home Thursday against Fort Bragg. A win would give the Knights no worse than a share of second place in the final North standings.
Kelseyvillie is 18-14 on the season.
Cloverdale def. Upper Lake
At Upper Lake, the Upper Lake Cougars didn”t have much fight in them as they fell 25-11, 25-11, 25-15 to the Cloverdale Eagles in NCL I South action.
“We had more hitting errors than kills,” Upper Lake coach Sandy Coatney said. “In the second game it went from 3-2 to 11-3 (Cloverdale) and we made seven hitting errors in that span.”
The Cougars fared better from the service line, committing only two errors.
Katherine Edmonds” 15 digs led Upper Lake. Emily Knispel added 14 digs and Rebecca Swaney had 12.
St. Helena def. Clear Lake
At Lakeport, St. Helena (7-0) clinched the outright NCL I South title with a 25-15, 25-18, 25-9 win over the Clear Lake Cardinals, who finish in second place in the standings at 5-3.
“Their top player was out (sick) and I was thinking we had a chance,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds said. “But we were shanking them left and right and fell apart.”
Vanessa Tullos” four kills led the Cardinals. Riley Gabehart had two kills and two blocks.
