LAFAYETTE — Clear Lake High School’s volleyball season came to an end Tuesday night as the Cardinals fell 25-18, 25-21, 25-21 to the Bentley School Phoenix in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division V playoffs at Lafayette.
Clear Lake (16-19) also said goodbye to three of its veterans, libero Madi Ferguson, setter/outside hitter Kylie Udy and middle hitter Lilli Hill, the team’s captains.
“All three had awesome years, which is what we needed,” Clear Lake head coach Marci Psalmonds said of her seniors, who led a rebuilding club in 2018 after a veteran Cardinals squad reached the NorCal semifinals a year ago. “We jumped on their backs and rode ’em.”
All three went down swinging against a Bentley team that engaged in some long rallies with the Cardinals in all three sets.
“The games were awesome,” Psalmonds said. “They went back and forth and they were long. All three could have gone either way.”
Udy led the Cardinals with nine kills and she also had 11 digs, nine assists and three aces.
“She’s a smart player and she can do everything, the kind of player you don’t get very often,” Psalmonds said. “She’s definitely a leader of the team.”
Ferguson logged a team-best 22 digs and also had three aces.
“She dug everything up she could get to,” Psalmonds said. “She was the glue of our defense all season.”
Hill finished with four kills and two blocks, numbers that were a bit deceiving, according to Psalmonds.
“She was a force at the net. Her numbers don’t reflect how well she played.”
Two players the Cardinals will count on next season, Shaelyn McIntire, a junior, and Daijanae Landers, a sophomore, also finished up the season on a high note.
McIntire had five kills, 15 assists and nine digs while Landers recorded eight kills and two blocks.
“It was really promising to see what we have next year,” Psalmonds said of the nine underclassmen on her 2018 roster. “My sophomores usually make a lot of mistakes but they played well tonight.”
Bentley, the No. 4 seed in the Division V field, hosts No. 5 Urban in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 7 p.m. Urban came from behind to defeat No. 12 Mendocino in five sets on Tuesday.
