LAKEPORT — Better late than never. Although the Clear Lake Cardinals struggled mightily with a young starting lineup this season, they finished strong, beating the St. Helena Saints 25-19, 25-23, 25-21 on Wednesday night in the North Central League I varsity volleyball finale for both teams at Lakeport.
Clear Lake went 5-9 in league play with a roster that featured a handful of seniors — Shaelyn McIntire, Emily Keiser, Natalie Perry, Shelby Butcher and Ashlynn Gudmundson, of which McIntire was the only starter. The remainder of the squad returns next season when veteran coach Marci Psalmonds also inherits some of the pieces off of Clear Lake’s championship junior varsity squad, which went 14-0 in league play this season.
Clear Lake had lost six straight league matches before beating Willits on Tuesday night and St. Helena on Wednesday. At 16-16 overall and 7-2 against other Division 5 teams, the Cardinals will apply for an at-large berth in next week’s North Coast Section playoffs, so they might not be through just yet. The field will be released Sunday.
“We’ll see,” Psalmonds said. “I told the girls and they’re pretty excited. There won’t be any pressure on us. We can just go out and play.”
In fact, Psalmonds said that if the Cardinals get a chance to continue their season in the playoffs, they simply need to play like they have for the past two nights.
“Everybody played great tonight,” she said. “They were focused on the game, cheering for each other.”
Joy Ingalls’ play at the net and Sydney Howe’s serving were among the highlights in the victory.
“She (Ingalls) had some tremendous blocks at just the right time. She played really well at the net.”
Howe finished with 18 service points, including a string of five in a row to close out the first set.
While the bulk of Clear Lake’s starting lineup returns next season, Psalmonds had kind words for her seniors, especially McIntire, an outside hitter.
“She’s one of those coachable kids, a real gamer,” Psalmonds said. “All of them were definitely hard workers even if they didn’t play a lot. They came in day after day and made our other players better.”
JV match
Clear Lake completed a perfect 14-0 run through league play with a 25-13, 25-17 victory over St. Helena.
“I have great athletes,” Clear Lake coach Morgan Psalmonds said. “If someone is having a hard day, I can replace them with another great athlete.”
In their final match of the season, Psalmonds said sophomores Hailee Bussard, Lexey Wurm and Felicia Cortez helped lead the way to another win. Bussard led the team with five kills and eight digs, Wurm had 10 service points on 13 serves, including two aces, and Cortez served out the match with three straight aces.
“They were solid,” Psalmonds said of the play all season of her sophomores. “They welcomed the freshmen with open arms and held them to high expectations.”
Among the Cardinals’ many traits was versatility, according to Psalmonds, who used middle hitter Montana Wells in the back row during Wednesday’s action and she came up with a huge save that led to a Clear Lake point.
“It was access denied for everything they tried to do to us,” Psalmonds said of the Saints.
