FORT BRAGG — Kelseyville’s road to a fourth straight North Central League I varsity volleyball championship just got a lot shorter.
The Knights, behind a great defensive display by libero Payton Conrad, knocked off their closest pursuers in the league standings on Tuesday night, beating the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 26-24, 25-17, 22-25, 25-14. The undefeated Knights (9-0) now have a three-game cushion over both Fort Bragg and Middletown with only five matches remaining. Barring a complete meltdown over the next two and a half weeks, the Knights will soon be adding another pennant to their gym rafters.
“It was definitely a battle,” Kelseyville head coach Donelle McCallister said. “We had to come from behind to win the first set.”
Conrad logged 42 digs against the Timberwolves (6-3).
“We picked up everything but couldn’t put it away at the top,” McCallister said.
Fort Bragg’s defense made Kelseyville’s Allison Bryant work for her 32 kills, which came on 83 arm swings. Grace Davidson added 12 kills while setter Paige Bour had 36 assists and five aces. Kat Brown chipped in with three blocks.
“Scrappy, they’re very scrappy,” McCallister said of the Timberwolves.
It’s only the second time in league play that an opponent has taken Kelseyville to four sets.
The Knights hit the road again Thursday to play Willits.
In other volleyball action Tuesday:
Clear Lake def. Lower Lake
At Lower Lake, the Clear Lake Cardinals pushed back above the .500 mark in league play with a 25-11, 25-23, 25-17 victory over the Lower Lake Trojans.
Lower Lake (0-9) received a solid outing from Shelby Sapeta, who led the team with nine kills and 14 digs. Other key contributors were Kayla Doud with five kills and three aces and Tess Biasotti with nine assists and 12 digs.
“I’m really proud of them, we had some really good rallies,” Lower Lake coach Niki Emberson said. “The scoreboard doesn’t reflect what we want it to, but we played a pretty good match.”
Lower Lake had to regroup early in the third set when Biasotti, the team’s starting setter, sustained a leg injury and had to leave the match.
“She was having a really good game, too,” Emberson said.
For Clear Lake (5-4), setter Kylie Udy turned in a strong overall effort with nine kills, 10 assists, 11 digs and three aces.
“She had a good night,” Clear Lake head coach Marci Psalmonds said.
Libero Madi Ferguson added a team-best 15 digs to go along with 14 service points, five of them aces, and Shaelyn McIntire had five kills and 12 assists.
“That’s one heck of a little libero there,” Emberson said of Ferguson. “She was picking up some amazing shots.”
“We didn’t pass too well tonight but we played well enough to get the win,” Psalmonds added.
Lower Lake hosts St. Helena on Thursday night while Clear Lake is home against Fort Bragg.
In the JV match, Clear Lake beat Lower Lake 25-9, 25-3 behind nine aces and 15 service points from Sydney Howe and another seven aces and nine service points from Zoey Pepper.
Clear Lake is 6-3 in league play.
Middletown def. Willits
At Willits, the Middletown Mustangs are now tied with Fort Bragg for second place in the league standings after their 25-15, 26-16, 25-19 victory over the Willits Wolverines.
Middletown (6-3) didn’t play its best match of the season but did enough to win for the third time in its last four matches.
“I’m proud of ’em and we’re on a roll that we need to keep going,” Middletown head coach Vansessa Davis said.
Taylor Griffin powered the Mustangs with seven kills to go along with three aces and one block. Abi Hibner added five kills and seven blocks while Bella Dubois had four kills and one ace.
“Willits is a scrappy little team and they got everything up,” Davis said. “They’re also good servers and we struggled with our serve receive tonight.”
In JV action, Middletown swept Willits 25-9, 25-17 to improve to 8-1 in the league standings.
“We were two players down but the team worked really well together,” Middletown coach Nikeedra Davis said.
Forced to shuffle the lineup, the Mustangs responded with a convincing win after dropping a league match on Thursday against Fort Bragg.
“Emma Hansen did a great job with her passes,” Davis said of her middle hitter who also get a crack at playing in the back row for the first time.
Another standout was Syrah Moore.
“She had some great serves tonight and also did a really good job of keeping the team together,” Davis said.
Middletown’s teams are home Thursday to play Cloverdale.
St. Vincent def. Upper Lake
At Petaluma, the St.Vincent Mustangs defeated the Upper Lake Cougars 25-10, 25-12, 25-11 in NCL II action.
The play of Caitlin Lucientes and Kaila Willard stood out for the Cougars (4-8), according to Upper Lake head coach Dani Paige Gudmundson Pena.
“They never gave up once,” Gudmundson Pena said.
Upper Lake’s JVs did come away with a 25-10, 25-19 win.
Upper Lake returns home Friday to play Roseland University Prep of Santa Rosa.
