ARCATA — Clear Lake High School’s varsity volleyball team had a pretty good northern road trip during the weekend, beating Eureka in a varsity-only match on Friday in Eureka before reaching the championship bracket Saturday at the Arcata Tournament.
The Cardinals defeated Eureka 25-18, 25-11, 25-15 behind nine kills from Shaelyn McIntire, 14 digs from Cady Harmon and five kills and four blocks from Emma Boatright.
On Saturday during pool play at Arcata, the Cardinals opens with a 25-16, 25-21 victory over the Arcata junior varsity squad (replacing a varsity team that had dropped out), beat Ferndale 25-4, 25-12, and turned back Central Valley 25-19, 25-7 to reach the championship bracket, which only eight of the tournament’s 16 teams qualify for.
Clear Lake wouldn’t have reached the championship bracket without a stellar performance from Daijanae Landers in the Central Valley win, according to head coach Marci Psalmonds.
“She was blocking hitting, doing everything,” Psalmonds said.
Once in the championship bracket, the Cardinals turned back Fortuna 25-13, 19-25, 15-10 before losing to Arcata 25-12, 25-22 in the semifinals.
“Arcata has two 6-4 girls who are pretty good,” Psalmonds said. “And we were tired by then.”
Landers was among Clear Lake’s tournament standouts with 21 kills and only two hitting errors, along with 13 blocks.
“Best I’ve ever seen her play,” Psalmonds said.
McIntire finished with 41 kills, 44 digs and 10 aces, Sydney Howe added 43 assists, 12 aces and 11 kills, Natalie Perry had 19 kills, and Cady Harmon had 46 digs and eight aces.
Clear Lake travels to Middletown for a North Central League I match on Tuesday. Junior varsity action starts at 5 p.m.
In other high school girls action:
Girls soccer
Credo 6, Upper Lake 1
At Upper Lake, Karlee Zimmershied scored in the second half with an assist from Maddy Young as the Upper Lake Cougars fell to Credo in girls soccer action on Friday.
“They were faster than us and they made better passes,” Upper Lake coach Daniella Santana said. “It was a tough game and they were physical.”
Upper Lake is 4-3 on the season.
