UPPER LAKE — Missing two of their top players didn’t help as the Upper Lake Cougars fell to Calistoga in North Central League II volleyball action on Tuesday evening at Upper Lake. The Wildcats prevailed in four sets, 27-25, 16-25, 25-14, 25-18.
It was Upper Lake’s league opener.
Senior middle hitter Seneca Snow missed the match because of the death of her grandmother while senior libero Colene Pulido was away on a school-related trip to New York.
“At least I’ll get my libero (Pulido) back,” Upper Lake head coach Dani Paige Gudmundson Pena said with an eye toward a league match Thursday against Technology in Rohnert Park. The Cougars are also home Friday against Roseland Collegiate Prep, and they are entered in the Fort Bragg Tournament on Saturday, so the loss of Snow, one of the team captains and leaders, will be keenly felt.
Kaila Willard’s eight kills powered the Cougars up front against Calistoga and two other Upper Lake players, senior Maria Wade and freshman Madison Noble, turned in strong efforts from the service line where the Cougars made only nine errors during the match.
Wade stepped to the service line in the second set with Upper Lake trailing 13-12 and reeled off 10 straight points to give the Cougars a 22-13 lead. They went on to win 25-16. Noble had a string of nine straight service points during one stretch.
“It was a lot of changing around,” Pena said of Upper Lake’s lineup with Snow and Pulido absent. “I didn’t realize just how much changing it would be. I wasn’t upset with how they played, but we had a lack of communication.”
Upper Lake won the junior varsity match 25-20, 25-11 as Hayleigh Seritch served up eight aces and Heaven-Lee Loans Arrow led the team with six kills. Other standouts were Lupyomia Duncan-Monlo with three kills and four aces, and Rylee Dalton with seven assists, a stretch of 11 straight service points, and six aces.
