WILLITS >> The Kelseyville Knights can now set their sights on the St. Helena Saints after dispatching the Willits Wolverines 25-11, 25-12, 25-11 in a North Central League I varsity volleyball match on Tuesday evening in Willits.
Kelseyville registered its sixth straight win to complete the first half of its NCL I schedule at 6-1, the lone blemish a league-opening four-set loss to the St. Helena Saints on Sept. 23 at Kelseyville. St. Helena was 6-0 going into its match Tuesday night with Cloverdale. The Knights begin the second half on Thursday at St. Helena needing a victory to move back atop the league standings.
Kelseyville coach Donelle McCallister said it won”t be easy beating St. Helena on its own court.
“It”s going to be a tough match,” McCallister said. “But we”re as ready as we”re going to be. I think we can play with them, I really do.”
Heidy Cano”s 10 kills led the Knights against Willits. Other Kelseyville leaders were Kayla Zarate with eight aces, Riley Goff with 18 assists and Mary McCallister with 12 digs.
Kelseyville”s junior varsity squad rallied for a 22-25, 25-19, 15-5 win.
In other volleyball action Tuesday:
Fort Bragg def. Clear Lake
At Lakeport, after playing a nearly flawless first game, the Clear Lake Cardinals floundered on service receive the rest of the night and the Fort Bragg Timberwolves took advantage, winning 15-25, 25-20, 25-23, 18-25, 16-14 in NCL I action.
Clear Lake committed 24 serve receive errors while dropping to 3-4 in the league standings. Fort Bragg improved to 2-5.
“If we could just cut that number in half, we”d be OK,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds said of the number of service receive errors.
The Cardinals received a big night up front from senior middle hitter Aliza Atkins, who led the team with 17 kills and a career-best nine blocks. She also had two aces and 12 digs. Logan Robinson added nine kills and 16 digs, Kiana Richardson had six kills, three blocks and three aces, and setter Emily Psalmond had 33 assists.
Clear Lake won the JV match 25-9, 25-18 behind six kills, nine points and two aces from Valerie Hutton and four aces and two kills from Camille Donald.
Middletown def. Lower Lake
At Lower Lake, the Middletown Mustangs rallied back to beat the Lower Lake Trojans 25-15, 23-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-3 in NCL I action.
“My girls have talent and play well together, but mentally they need to be stronger,” Lower Lake coach Darcie Schmidt said.
Ashlynn Mock”s consistent serving was a plus for the Trojans (2-5). She finished with 10 points, four aces and two kills. Brooke Taliaferro added 11 points and four kills while Jolene Scarborough had two kills and five aces.
Renee Edwards led the Mustangs (4-3) with 11 kills, seven blocks and nine aces while Emily Lescher added seven kills and four blocks.
RVC def. Upper Lake
At Upper Lake, Rincon Valley Christian defeated Upper Lake 25-17, 25-20, 25-22 in NCL II action. Upper Lake”s JVs won 24-17, 25-14 earlier in the evening.
In the varsity match, LaShaye Taylor”s five kills and 11 digs led the Cougars. Sierra Fugate added five kills and three blocks while Jojo Augustine had five kills and two aces.
“We”re improving as we go,” Upper Lake coach Raelene Cromwell said. “We got a good compliment from their coach.”
In JV action, Natalie Karlsson had 10 service points, six aces, three kills and three digs. Also contributing to the win were Dakota Fugate with eight points and five aces, and KJ Taylor with five kills.
Girls” soccer
Middletown 4, Fort Bragg 3
At Middletown, Megan Touros scored with seven minutes remaining to snap a 3-all tie and lift the undefeated Mustangs to a hard-fought league victory over the Fort Bragg Timberwolves.
“It was not an easy game, it was intense,” Middletown coach Amy Emerson said.
Middletown improved to 9-0 in the league standings and 12-1-1 overall behind two goals from Kaleigh Alves, who also assisted on Touros” game-winning shot. Caitlin Lemoine also scored for the Mustangs, who led 1-0 at the half.
Middletown never trailed in the game although Fort Bragg did pull even at 3 late in the second half.
“They”re definitely improved,” Emerson said of the Timberwolves, who lost 4-2 to Middletown in the first league meeting on Sept. 18 in Fort Bragg. “They came ready to play and we provided them with beautiful Fort Bragg weather,” Emerson added.
Middletown had 33 shots on goal.
Cloverdale 3, Kelseyville 1
At Cloverdale, Dani Gonzales scored in the first half to tie the game but the Kelseyville Knights fell to the Cloverdale Eagles in NCL I action.
Abby Wold assisted on Gonzales” goal. Cloverdale scored near the end of the first half to go up 2-1 and added an insurance goal in the second half.
“We played them as well as we could possibly play them,” Kelseyville coach Dave Wold said of the Eagles, who improved to 6-3 in the league standings with their win. “We had more shots on goal than they did, but we just couldn”t get enough of them to go in. None of my girls had their heads down.”
Kelseyville is 1-6-2 in league and and 5-7-2 overall.
Clear Lake 3, Willits 1
At Lakeport, Hannah Norwood scored twice in the second half to snap a 1-1 halftime tie and lift the Clear Lake Cardinals to a league victory over the Willits Wolverines.
Willits scored the game”s first goal. Clear Lake pulled even on a shot by Emily Hayes.
“Our defense did a real good job,” Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea said. “We”ve kind of had to reinvent ourselves after losing Ciera Moreno to a broken leg.”
Moreno, a three-year varsity veteran and the team”s top defensive player, was lost for the season last week in a 3-2 win at Fort Bragg.
Several players stepped up to fill the void left by Moreno, according to Larrea. Among them were Taylor Woodruff and Jordan Chapin. Larrea also credited Norwood, Hayes, Mina Werner and Taylor Helms with solid performances in the win over Willits.
Maddie Wynacht and Lexie Burke had assists for the Cardinals.
Boys” soccer
Lower Lake 3, St. Helena 3 (tie)
At Lower Lake, after spotting St. Helena a 2-0 lead in the first half, the Lower Lake Trojans roared back with three straight goals in the second half before settling for a tie against the Saints.
“St. Helena played like they were looking past us,” Lower Lake coach Dan Griffin said.
Lower Lake (1-6-2, 3-8-2) scored twice in the first seven minutes of the second half to pull even. Angel Ochoa scored with an assist from Mauricio Jauregui to make it 2-1, then Jauregui had the play of the game a couple of minutes later, redirecting a free kick by Victor Gallegos past the St. Helena keeper and into the goal to knot the score.
“It was a highlight reel goal, something you would see on ESPN,” Griffin said. “He deflected it with his foot at just the right moment and it went right into the corner of the net. The keeper couldn”t do a thing to stop it.”
David Fernandez scored with 12 minutes remaining to give Lower Lake its first lead of the game. It remained 3-2 until the final minutes when a Trojan player accidentally headed a ball into the Lower Lake goal, tying the score.
“I”m so proud of these guys for coming back like they did,” Griffin said. “It was such a great team effort to see.”
Among the standouts for Lower Lake were Octavio Perez, who played all 80 minutes, and Gallegos at defensive-mid.
“Victor played an amazing game for us,” Griffin said.
Fort Bragg 2, Middletown 1
At Middletown, Jorge Morales scored early in the second half for Middletown in a league loss to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves, who led 2-0 at the half.
“Fort Bragg is a really strong team, but we definitely had some runs at them,” Middletown coach Luis Chairez said of the Mustangs (2-7, 2-9). “We keep having really good games against the top teams, we just don”t seem to have quite enough.”
Willits 3, Clear Lake 0
At Lakeport, Gio Sanchez played a strong game in goal but the Clear Lake Cardinals fell to the Willits Wolverines in NCL I action.
Willits led 2-0 after the first half and added a penalty kick in the second half.
Sanchez had eight saves.
“He played very well,” Clear Lake co-coach Tony Paskaly said.
Willits had 16 shots on goal to Clear Lake”s 15.
“Our guys are playing better ? much better defensively,” Paskaly said.
Clear Lake is 0-9 in league and 0-11 overall.
