LAKEPORT — Clear Lake’s first varsity volleyball match of the season had a playoff atmosphere on Tuesday evening as the Cardinals, minus a key player, fell 27-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-21 in non-league action at Lakeport.
“There were a lot of fans, it was fun match,” Clear Lake head coach Marci Psalmonds said.
The match made a bit of history in its own right as it was the first ever contested in a Clear Lake High School gym now outfitted with air conditioning, a nice perk on a day when temperatures outside reached into the triple digits.
Psalmonds said the Colusa players were pleasantly surprised to walk into a cool gym. However, things quickly heated up between the two teams, both playoff squads a year ago. In fact, the Redhawks are a volleyball powerhouse in the North Section where they finished 32-9 last season when they went undefeated in league play, finished second in the Division 4 playoffs, and reached the NorCal playoffs. Colusa also went 30-16 in 2019 and 35-18 in 2018 (their 2020 season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic, the same as Clear Lake’s).
“They’re a pretty good team,” Psalmonds said. “I would much rather lose a tough match like that than play a weak team and win big. We learned so much.”
One thing the Cardinals learned is that they can remain competitive even though they’ve lost a key member of their team, junior outside hitter Camrin Pivniska, who sustained a torn ACL in her left knee during a scrimmage Saturday at Kelseyville.
“She went up to hit a ball and came down wrong,” Psalmonds said. “She’s a big player for us.”
Minus Pivniska, the Cardinals still put up a good battle but ultimately couldn’t overcome the 12 service errors they made in the first two sets, both won by Colusa.
“It killed us,” Psalmonds said. “We missed only two others the rest of the match.”
Clear Lake trailed 7-0 and 20-7 in the first set before falling 27-25. The final three sets also were tightly contested, Clear Lake winning the third set 25-22 to extend the best-of-five match.
“We were in there for 2 1/2 hours,” Psalmonds said of the marathon match.
Junior libero Amber Smart led the way with 29 digs as the Cardinals spent much of the match digging up Colusa’s hard smashes over the net.
“She held down the defense, she did awesome,” Psalmonds said of Smart.
Clear Lake’s other leaders were senior Abby Mertle with 11 kills and three blocks, senior Stella Hill with 10 kills, senior Rubi Ford with four kills and 13 digs, and senior Sierra Bruch with 20 assists and 13 digs. Quincy Paarsch, called up from the junior varsity team to replace the injured Pivniska, added five kills and 15 digs.
“She filled in and did a nice job,” Psalmonds said of Paarsch.
Clear Lake returns to action Friday in the varsity bracket of the Cougar Invitational at Upper Lake. The Cardinals play Middletown at noon, Kelseyville at 2:20 p.m., Mendocino at 3:30 p.m. and Upper Lake at 4:40 p.m. After round-robin play is compete, the top two teams meet for the championship and the next-best two teams play for third place. The tournament continues Saturday with JV teams from those same schools in action.
Next Tuesday Clear Lake’s JV and varsity teams are on the road to play Anderson Valley in Boonville beginning at 5 p.m.
JV match
“I’m not going to lie, I thought it was going to be a humbling experience for us,” Clear Lake JV coach Morgan Psalmonds said of her team’s season opener against Colusa. “As a coach I want to win all of my matches, but I told them (her players) that we could learn from this even if we were humbled by them … and then they managed to pull out a win. It was awesome.”
Clear Lake prevailed 25-20, 17-25, 16-14, and the Cardinals trailed 14-13 in the third and final set, reeling off three straight points for the match victory.
“The third set was close the whole way,” Psalmonds said. “My players really stepped it up.”
Standouts for Clear Lake in its season debut were middle hitter Kaylah Billig with four kills, setter Emily Gersalia with six assists, nine digs and one ace, libero Atiana Patino with nine digs and six service points, outside hitter Evelyn Cejo with nine points and one ace, including four service points in the third and deciding set.
“She’s got great hands and a good mindset,” Psalmonds said of Gersalia, who moved into the setter’s role only recently.
