MIDDLETOWN — There”s still a long way to go in the North Central League I varsity volleyball race, but make no mistake about it because this race is on.
The Kelseyville Knights saw to that on Thursday, knocking the Middletown Mustangs from the ranks of the undefeated with a 25-19, 25-15, 16-25, 25-23 win at Middletown. Combined with St. Helena”s win over previously undefeated Clear Lake on Thursday in Lakeport and the league lead is now shared by those four teams, all at 3-1.
“The numbers in the first two games don”t say how tough it was,” Kelseyville coach Donelle McCallister said. “Middletown is a good team.”
Jeannie Johnson had 16 kills to lead the Knights while Kara Gailor had five aces. Other Kelseyville standouts were the setter tandem of Mary McCallister and Riley Goff as well as Karissa Huggins and Lauren Rudnick.
“Mary and Riley were all over the place, passing, digging,” McCallister said. “Karissa and Lauren played strong defense.”
Middletown coach Jennifer Breiner had to change her lineup in the first game.
“The girls we had out there worked really hard,” Breiner said.
Heather Huston had seven kills, three digs and two aces while Renee Edwards contributed six kills, four blocks and two aces. Emily Lescher added five aces and five digs.
“She really did a nice job for them,” McCallister said of Edwards. “She”s a good player.”
In other volleyball action Thursday:
St. Helena def. Clear Lake
At Lakeport, the St. Helena Saints dropped the first game but rallied to hand Clear Lake its first league loss, 24-26, 25-16, 25-18, 25-19. As a result of the match, four teams — Clear Lake, St. Helena, Kelseyville and Middletown — are now tied for the league lead at 3-1.
Sixteen kills and two blocks from Aliza Atkins and 14 kills and 15 digs from Logan Robinson led the Cardinals. Emily Psalmonds, the Cardinals” setter, had 28 assists.
“We had 13 missed serves, more than we”ve had all season,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds said.
The Cardinals also made 32 serve-receive errors.
Courtney Hiatt was called up from the junior varsity squad to replace injured middle hitter Rachel Wingler and the freshman had three blocks.
“She did a good job,” Psalmonds said.
Cloverdale def. Lower Lake
At Lower Lake, Cloverdale beat Lower Lake 25-12, 25-21, 25-18 in NCL I volleyball action, dropping the Trojans to 0-4 in the league standings.
“A lot of good, long rallies, but we had trouble passing the ball from the back row,” Lower Lake coach Niki Doud said.
Zobee Miller”s 11 kills and three blocks paced the Trojans. Brooke Taliaferro added five kills.
Sonoma Academy def. Upper Lake
At Upper Lake, Son-oma Academy defeated a depleted Upper Lake squad 25-21, 25-18, 18-25, 25-23 in NCL II action.
The Cougars were minus two players because of sickness and another — their setter — because of injury. LaShaye Taylor was pressed into service at setter and did a respectable job, according to coach Raelene Cromwell.
“She did well,” Cromwell said of Taylor”s first start at setter.
Joleca Augustine”s 11 kills powered the Cougars and Jaime Maddock and Sierra Fugate had eight kills apiece.
Girls” soccer
Middletown 9, Willits 0
At Middletown, the Willits Wolverines kept the Middletown Mustangs off the scoreboard until the 22nd minute of the first half, at which point Hannah Diaz went off like a time bomb.
Behind five goals from Diaz, who rolled her ankle but returned to the game, the Mustangs shut out the Wolverines in NCL I varsity girls” soccer action. The Mustangs scored four times in the final 18 minutes of the first half to open up a 4-0 halftime lead.
Rosie Emerson scored twice for the Mustangs (7-1 league, 10-2 overall) while Ashley Hart and Madison Ketchum added a goal apiece. Kaleigh Alves and Caitlin Lemoine each had two assists.
St. Helena 4, Kelseyville 0
At St. Helena, St. Helena scored the only goal of the first half before going on to beat the Kelseyville Knights.
It remained a 1-0 game until midway through the second half.
Sweeper Milly Cacho”s play anchored the Kelseyville defense.
Kelseyville is 2-6 in league play.
Fort Bragg 5, Lower Lake 1
At Lower Lake, Gabby Jauregui”s goal in the first half was all the offense the Lower Lake Trojans (0-8, 1-8) could generate in a league loss to Fort Bragg.
Valerie Matheny assisted on Jauregui”s goal.
Goalie Kristen Celli and sweeper Jenny Tena turned in strong performances for the Trojans, according to Lower Lake coach Robynn Giese.
Cloverdale 4, Clear Lake 0
At Lakeport, the Cloverdale Eagles improved to 8-0 in league play and 11-0 overall by shutting out the Clear Lake Cardinals (5-3, 8-6).
Cloverdale led 3-0 after one half. Clear Lake had its chances in the first 15 minutes, missing three shots from point-blank range, according to coach Paul Larrea, who was pleased with his team”s overall effort.
Standouts for the Cardinals were Jordan Chapin, Crystal Zepeda and Ciera Moreno on defense and Kelcie Reynolds, who played at forward, midfield and sweeper.
“She did a great job,” Larrea said of Reynolds.
Boys” soccer
Lower Lake 2, Fort Bragg 2 (tie)
At Lower Lake, Fort Bragg scored two goals in the second half to earn a tie with Lower Lake.
Lower Lake (3-4-1, 4-7-1) built a 2-0 lead on a pair of David Fernandez goals — one in each half. Fernandez”s first goal, a curling shot from long distance, actually carried the Fort Bragg keeper into the net. His second goal came on a hard shot off the keeper that bounced back to Fernandez, who tapped it into the net to make it 2-0 midway through the second half.
Fort Bragg smartly punched the ball through the Lower Lake defense on two different occasions to tie the game and the Timberwolves had three corner kick opportunities in the final minutes. The last one was almost headed into the net but Lower Lake keeper Efrain Santana stopped the shot to preserve the tie.
“We left everything on the table,” Lower Lake coach Dan Griffin said of the Trojans” effort.
Cloverdale 3, Clear Lake 1
At Lakeport, Alej-andro Cruz boomed in a goal from 30 yards out in the second half but the Clear Lake Cardinals fell to the Cloverdale Eagles in a rough-and-tumble NCL I game, one that produced nine yellow cards on the Cloverdale side.
“Stellar performance from the whole team today both on offense and defense,” Clear Lake co-coach Shaun Hornby said. “Our best performance of the season.”
The goal by Cruz in the second half made the score 3-1.
Willits 3, Middletown 1
At Middletown, in a game where yellow cards rained down and the benches cleared in the second half, the Willits Wolverines beat the Middletown Mustangs.
Willits led 1-0 at the half. Middletown”s Jesus Garcia tied the game, scoring seven minutes into the second half on a free kick. The Wolverines pushed ahead 2-1 a few minutes later and they added an insurance goal late in the half.
Middletown had its chances to score. The Mustangs missed a penalty kick and had another goal disallowed for pushing the Willits keeper.
St. Helena 2, Kelseyville 0
At St. Helena, the St. Helena Saints shut out the Kelseyville Knights, scoring one goal in each half.
Kelseyville (4-3-1, 5-5-1) beat St. Helena in their first league meeting, 5-1 at Kelseyville back on Sept. 10.
“They played a lot better than we did,” Kelseyville coach Edu-ardo Ledesma said.
