LAKEPORT >> When 6-0 meets 6-0, something has got to give. On Tuesday night, that something was the Clear Lake Cardinals.
Behind 13 kills from Carli Mendonca and 26 assists from Riley Goff, the Kelseyville Knights swept their archrivals 25-18, 25-22, 25-10 in a North Central League I varsity volleyball showdown at Lakeport.
Kelseyville (7-0) now sits alone atop the standings at the midway point of the league season while Clear Lake (6-1) drops a game back. If both teams can hold serve through the second half of league play, they’ll meet again on Oct. 27 in Kelseyville with some share of the title on the line.
“They’re just playing well together and working together,” Kelseyville coach Donelle McCallister said of the Knights. “I think our experience helped us, too.”
Kelseyville is the defending league champion with several starters back from last season.
“They kept dinking on us and the girls couldn’t adjust,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds said. “I know we can play with them.”
“She’s got a young team with a lot of firepower,” McCallister said of Psalmonds’ squad. “We can’t match their firepower so we had to do something and we did dink a lot.”
Kiana Richardson’s 10 kills and another nine kills and five digs from Camille Donald led the Cardinals. Madi Ferguson also had 14 digs.
The Knights received eight kills from freshman Allison Bryant, four blocks from Grace Davidson and solid passing from Payton Conrad.
“She passed the ball well all night,” McCallister said of Conrad.
Kelseyville also won the junior varsity match 25-13, 24-26, 15-8 behind the setting of Malia Brown and the hitting of Kalee Ellis in the third and decisive set.
“Malia kept feeding her and Kalee was killing it,” Kelseyville coach Deanna Goff said. “She really picked up her game in that third set.”
Brown finished with seven assists, four kills and three aces while Ellis led the team with six kills.
Shalyn McIntire had four kills for Clear Lake.
