LOWER LAKE >> It didn’t go exactly as planned for the Clear Lake Cardinals on Tuesday night, but they did survive to beat the Lower Lake Trojans 25-21, 18-25, 25-13, 20-25, 15-12 in a marathon North Central League I varsity volleyball match at Lower Lake.
Clear Lake improves to 4-0 in the league standings with the five-set victory while Lower Lake drops to 0-4.
“I don’t know how we won,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds. “It was just a really weird night.”
All facets of Clear Lake’s game suffered with the exception of Alicia Ledesma’s passing, according to Psalmonds. Ledesma finished with eight digs.
“We didn’t hit the ball well, our serving and passing weren’t very good,” Psalmonds said. “We had 15 service errors.”
Lower Lake coach Darcie Schmidt said she was encouraged by the play of the Trojans.
“We’re improving,”Schmidt said. “Honestly I have to say this is the best game we’ve played.”
Lower Lake led by five points early in the fifth and deciding set before Clear Lake rallied back.
“It went back and forth for awhile,” Schmidt said. “Everyone was scrambling for the ball on both sides.”
Ashlynn Mock’s seven kills, 17 service points and five aces powered the Trojans. Jolean Scraborough added five kills and three aces.
Rachel Wingler had 14 kills for the Cardinals.
Clear Lake’s junior varsity squad won 25-17, 25-16.
In other volleyball action Tuesday:
St. Helena def. M’town
At St. Helena, the Saints made the most of the errors Middletown did commit and beat the Mustangs in a competitive three-set match.
“We played well,” Middletown coach Jennifer Breiner said. “We made a few more errors than they did and you can’t make errors against a team like St. Helena.”
It was the first league loss for the Mustangs (2-1). St. Helena improved to 4-1.
Middletown had opportunities to win all three sets, especially the last two. The Mustangs jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the third set before St. Helena rallied.
Team leaders for the Mustangs were Jess DeSilva with five kills and three blocks, Emily Lescher with five aces, and Jordan Ketchum with 16 digs and two aces.
St. Helena also won the JV match 25-13, 25-9.
The Mustangs host league-leading Kelseyville (5-0) on Thursday.
Roseland Prep def. Upper Lake
At Santa Rosa, Roseland Prep beat Upper Lake 25-17, 25-23, 25-16 in NCL II action despite 12 kills, 18 digs, eight service points and four aces by the Cougars’ Christina Wilson.
Other Upper Lake leaders were Natalie Karlsson with 16 digs, 17 assists, nine points and three aces, and Briana Binns with 15 digs and five points.
Roseland Prep also won the JV match 25-13, 25-6.
Boys’ soccer
Willits 1, Lower Lake 0
At Lower Lake, despite dominating Willits most of the game, including a sizable advantage in time of possession, the Lower Lake Trojans were shut out by the Wolverines.
“It’s the first game I felt like we’ve dominated,” Lower Lake coach Dan Griffin said. “You name the category and we had the advantage … except the game is decided on how many times you kick it (the ball) into the net and it was the same old story for us. We couldn’t finish.”
Griffin said the Trojans, now 0-4 in league, had 20 “OK looks” at the net and four or five shots that could have easily gone in but didn’t.
“Our bad luck,” Griffin said.
Willits scored midway through the first half on a free kick that found an open Wolverine in the middle of the field.
“He karate kicked it into the net,” Griffin said. “It was quite impressive.”
Lower Lake plays at Kelseyville on Thursday and at Middletown on Friday.
Cloverdale 2, M’town 0
At Cloverdale, the Cloverdale Eagles scored twice in the second half and went on to blank the previously undefeated Middletown Mustangs.
Middletown (3-1-1) entered the game atop the league standings at 3-0-1 but couldn’t generate much in the way of offense, according to head coach Luis Chairez.
“We had difficulties controlling the midfield and that’s where their strengths are,” Chairez said of the Eagles. ‘They played better than we did and that’s just how it goes sometimes.”
Clovredale broke the scoreless deadlock 10 minutes into the second half and picked up an insurance goal with about five minutes remaining.
Middletown hosts Lower Lake on Friday.
Girls’ soccer
Middletown 3, Cloverdale 0
At Cloverdale, despite playing a man down from near the end of the first half on, the Middletown Mustangs pushed their NCL I-leading record to 4-0 by shutting out the Cloverdale Eagles.
Rosie Emerson picked up a red card late in the first half and had to leave the field, leaving Middletown (5-2 overall) with just 10 players the rest of the way (you can’t substitute for a player who receives a red card).
Middletown finally got things going in the second half after struggling on offense for the first 40 minutes. Caitlin Lemoine scored with an assist from Madison Ketchum in the 45th minute to give the Mustangs the lead for good. Kaleigh Alves tacked on two more goals later in the second half. Ketchum assisted on one of them and Aly Ferguson on the other.
“Sometimes it takes a big penalty like that to get it together,” Middletown coach Amy Emerson said of the red card that her daughter received. “We passed much better in the second half.”
Middletown hosts Clear Lake (2-1-3) on Thursday and Lower Lake on Friday.
