MIDDLETOWN — Letting go of your seniors is one of the hardest things a coach ever does and Vanessa Davis of the Middletown High School varsity volleyball team is losing some good ones following the Mustangs’ 25-18, 25-20, 25-17 victory over the Willits Wolverines on Thursday at Middletown High School.
In the North Central League I and season finale for both teams, Middletown middle hitters Abbey Brown and Bella Dubois went out in style, Brown with 15 kills, five blocks and four aces and Dubois with eight kills, two blocks and one ace. Another senior, Mylie Turney, finished with three kills, three aces and 10 digs.
“She was just a digging queen,” Davis said of Turney. “She came off the bench last year but she just turned it on this year. I couldn’t be happier with how she played.”
Also playing their final match in a Middletown volleyball uniform were Middletown’s two setters, Alessandra Diaz and Haylee Sust, and defensive specialist Stacey Tablit.
“I’m gonna miss them,” Davis said. “I wish we could play another match, but it is what it is when it comes to the playoffs.”
Finishing at 6-8 in league play and under .500 overall, Middletown won’t be eligible to apply for a postseason berth, according to Davis.
“I left them on the floor pretty much the whole match, there were lots of smiles, lots of energy,” Davis added of her seniors.
In the junior varsity match, Middletown closed out the season with a 25-19, 25-15 victory over Willits.
In other volleyball action Thursday:
Fort Bragg def. Lower Lake
At Lower Lake, the Lower Lake Trojans definitely improved from a winless 2018 campaign despite a 25-18, 25-15, 21-25, 25-11 loss to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves in their NCL I and season finale.
Lower Lake honored its six seniors prior to the match and they led the crowd in singing the national anthem, according to Lower Lake head coach Niki Emberson.
“They had fun, they were working together and playing well,” Emberson said. “They definitely looked more like a team tonight.”
Lower Lake’s six seniors are Shelby Sapeta, who had a monster night with team-leading totals of 13 kills and 30 digs; setter Jordan Rivera, who had 20 assists; Sam Hughes, who had five kills; Alisha Jones, Marnae Johnson and Amanda Adams.
“This is my group of girls,” said Emberson, who coached Sapeta, Rivera, Hughes, Jones and Kayla Doud, one of the team’s underclassmen, back when they were second-graders in the Konocti Basketball League. “I have group pictures of them all when they were little.”
Sapeta did all she could do to rally the Trojans in her last high school match.
“She was all over the place, it was amazing,” Emberson said.
Fort Bragg won the JV match 25-16, 25-23.
Son. Academy def. Upper Lake
At Santa Rosa, Upper Lake fell 25-15, 25-20, 25-16 to the Sonoma Academy Coyotes in the NCL II finale for both teams and possibly the season finale for the Cougars.
Upper Lake will apply for an at-large berth in the upcoming North Coast Section playoffs and will learn its fate on Sunday when the Division V field is released.
“We’ll see what happens,” Upper Lake coach Dani Paige Gudmundson Pena said. “Tonight’s not the ending I wanted.”
While Upper Lake won most of its rallies with Sonoma Academy, the Cougars had an awful night from the service line, according to Pena.
“It’s hard to keep a game going when you can’t get it over the net,” she said. “Our serving was way off tonight.”
Colene Pulido-Doyle led the Cougars with 20 digs while Seneca Snow added four kills and Madison Hicks had three blocks.
“The hustle was good, we just couldn’t serve,” Pena said.
In JV action, Upper Lake closed out its season with a 25-22, 25-21 victory over Sonoma Academy.
Minus two starters, the Cougars turned to freshmen Madi Noble and Nataly Vasquez and both stepped right in and contributed to the victory, according to head coach Fawn Rave.
Dena LoansArrow finished with five aces and four kills while Lupyomya Duncan-Monlo added four aces, two kills and two digs.
Cloverdale at Kelseyville, ppd.
At Kelseyville, a scheduled league finale between the NCL I-champion Kelseyville Knights (13-0) and the Cloverdale Eagles (11-2) was postponed because of the Kincade Fire burning just south of Cloverdale.
Because Saturday is the final day teams can play a regular-season match — the North Coast Section at-large and seeding meeting is Sunday — there may not be time to reschedule the match, according to Kelseyville coach Donelle McCallister, who hasn’t received the final word on whether the two teams will try to play on Friday or Saturday.
