WILLITS — The Middletown Mustangs spent more time traveling to and from Willits than they did on the court Thursday night, beating the Wolverines 25-9, 25-7, 25-5 in North Central League I varsity volleyball action.
With the victory, the Mustangs (7-1) keep pace with Kelseyville (7-1) atop the league standings.
“We played smooth,” Middletown coach Jennifer Breiner said. “We did everything we needed to do. We didn”t have many hitting or service errors.”
Brianna Ortiz led the Mustangs with seven kills, eight aces and four digs. Allegra Macedo added four kills and two digs while Sarah Schweitzer had eight aces, six assists and three digs.
Middletown also won the junior varsity match 25-7, 25-13.
Fort Bragg def. Lower Lake
At Fort Bragg, the Lower Lake Trojans fell 25-11, 25-20, 25-17 to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves in league action.
Zobee Miller had eight kills for Lower Lake while Shelbie Harris added three kills and three blocks.
Lower Lake rallied to win the JV match 17-25, 25-18, 15-7.
Cloverdale def. Clear Lake
At Cloverdale, despite winning two of the first three games, the Clear Lake Cardinals couldn”t put away Cloverdale in NCL I action. As a result, the Eagles rallied for a 25-20, 19-25, 27-29, 25-16, 15-13 victory while sending Clear Lake (3-5) to a fifth straight league loss.
“We struggled,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds said. “We were kind of sporadic … up and down a bit. It was a roller coaster tonight.”
Aliza Atkins led the Cardinals with 17 kills and Rachel Wingler, who returned to middle hitter in game three, finished with 13 kills and five aces. Logan Robinson added seven kills and a team-best eight aces.
“Logan had a real good night at the service line,” Psalmonds said.
St. Vincent def. Upper Lake
At Petaluma, the St. Vincent Mustangs beat the Upper Lake Cougars in the minimum three games, 25-15, 25-12, 31-29, in NCL II play.
Joleca Augustine”s eight kills powered the Cougars and Sierra Fugate and Heather Hankins added three kills apiece.
“The last game we started putting things together,” Upper Lake coach Raelene Cromwell said.
St. Vincent won the JV match 25-16, 19-25, 15-13. Autum Martinez had six kills for the Cougars, Isabel Rorabaugh added three kills and five aces, and Kejhana Taylor had five kills and three aces.
Boys” soccer
Kelseyville 5, Clear Lake 3
At Kelseyville, the Kelseyville Knights built a 5-0 lead en route to a league win over the Clear Lake Cardinals in NCL I action.
Kelseyville (6-4-2, 7-6-2) led 3-0 at halftime and increased that advantage to 5-0 before Clear Lake answered with two goals from Alejandro Cruz, who also picked up an assist on a Luis Muniz goal.
Enrique Cacho scored twice for the Knights and Giovanni Ruiz, Jesus Rojas and Elias Alvarez added goals.
“Our kids need to wake up earlier,” Clear Lake co-coach Tony Paskaly said of his team”s play in the first half. “We have the talent, but the kids to wake up as soon as the gun goes off.”
Kelseyville coach Eduardo Ledesma emptied his bench after going up 5-0. In fact, midfielder Cristian Macias moved to goalie and allowed all three Clear Lake goals.
“We were just trying to have some fun near the end,” Ledesma said.
Standouts for the Knights were Arnaud Caldow, Ricardo Covarrubias, Eduardo Castellanos and Luis Perez, according to Ledesma.
Clear Lake dropped to 0-12 in league and 0-14 overall.
Cloverdale 2, Middletown 0
At Middletown, Middletown controlled the first half and Cloverdale the second half, but it was the visiting Eagles who scored the only two goals of the game while beating the Mustangs in NCL I action.
There were only a combined 19 shots taken in the game, 11 of them by the Mustangs.
“It was just a hard-fought physical battle,” Middletown coach Chuck Rannells said. “I”m proud of the way the kids played.”
Willits 4, Lower Lake 1
At Willits, in a game where Willits simply outplayed Lower Lake, the Wolverines beat the Trojans in NCL I action.
“We actually played very well, but they just played better,” Lower Lake coach Dan Griffin said. “It was one of our better games.”
Jose Galvan”s goals off a long pass from Luis Trejo gave Lower Lake a 1-0 lead early in the game.
Willits pushed in front with two goals later in the half for a 2-1 lead.
The score remained unchanged until the final 15 minutes of the game when the Wolverines added to their lead.
“They just played a wonderful game,” Griffin said of the Wolverines.
Lower Lake is now 4-5-3 in league and 5-8-3 overall.
“At the end of the day my kids felt pretty good with the effort they put in,” Griffin said.
Girls” soccer
Clear Lake 3, Kelseyville 0
At Lakeport, Hannah Norwood scored one minute and 37 seconds into the game and the Clear Lake Cardinals went on to post their fourth straight shutout victory at the expense of the Kelseyville Knights.
“We really didn”t look back from there,” Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea said of Norwood”s goal.
Faith Hornby”s goal 25 minutes into the first half bumped Clear Lake”s lead to 2-0. Kelcie Reynolds added a penalty kick in the second half for insurance.
Mina Werner and Jordan Chapin anchored another strong effort by the Clear Lake defense, according to Larrea.
Clear Lake, now 9-3 in league and 12-6 overall, hosts Middletown (11-1) on Tuesday. With the Mustangs tied with Cloverdale (11-1) for the league lead entering the final week of the regular season, the Cardinals have a chance to play spoiler.
“We”re excited about that,” Larrea said. “We feel like we”re playing pretty well right now.”
Willits 3, Lower Lake 1
At Willits, Jenny Tena scored in the first half for Lower Lake in a league loss to the Willits Wolverines.
Willits led 2-1 at the half.
Lower Lake drops to 0-12 in league play and 1-12 overall.
