LAKE COUNTY — Going quickly and quietly was not in the Cardinals’ plans nearly a year ago today as the Clear Lake High School volleyball team upset Sonoma Academy 22-25, 25-14, 25-19, 26-24 in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs in Santa Rosa.
Until the COVID-19-delayed 2020-21 sports season starts in December, the Lake County Record-Bee will take a look back at the local sports happenings of a year ago and the teams and athletes who were making the headlines.
Volleyball
Clear Lake, the No. 9 seed in the Division 5 field to Sonoma Academy’s No. 8, entered the playoffs on a bit of a roll after winning its final two North Central League I matches. That momentum carried into the postseason as the Cardinals’ four-set victory over the Coyotes earned them a quarterfinal-round berth against No. 1 seed Marin Academy of San Rafael.
After dropping a hotly contested first set against Sonoma Academy in the best-of-five match, Clear Lake head coach Marci Psalmonds switched up the Cardinals’ defense. At first it didn’t look like the strategy would be successful as Clear Lake fell behind 9-1 in set two, but from that point on it was pretty much all Cardinals.
Raina Clifton reeled off seven straight points at the service line to get Clear Lake back into the second set, and the Cardinals outscored the Coyotes 17-5 the rest of the way to even the match at a set apiece.
Clifton’s run at the service line was topped by teammate Shaelyn McIntire in set three. The senior served nine straight points to power the Cardinals. McIntire and Clifton each had 21 service points during the match.
McIntire also led the team with 13 kills while Clifton had a team-best 21 digs and four aces.
Clear Lake would go on to lose to top-seeded Marin Academy in the quarterfinals, closing out the Cardinals’ 2019 season at 17-17.
