WILLITS — A two-match winning streak to end the season is how the Kelseyville Knights ended their 2022 varsity volleyball campaign Thursday night after beating the Willits Wolverines 25-18, 25-16, 25-12 in North Central League I action at Willits.
Kelseyville finishes league play at 6-10.
“The only way to go is up,” said Kelseyville head coach Donelle McCallister, who is losing only two players to graduation — Karissa Holland and Maddy Madrzyk.
“My two seniors improved all season,” McCallister said. “They worked so hard and I’m proud of both of them. They showed good leadership for the younger girls.”
Jayden Paulich, a junior, led the Knights with 16 assists against Willits while sophomore Olivia Hommer had a team-best nine kills. Faith McIntire, a freshman, added four kills, and junior Victoria Rodriguez had six digs.
Kelseyville also won the junior varsity match 25-16, 25-22.
Looking back on the season, McCallister said Kelseyville’s primary goal of improving this season was met.
“I’m proud of them for their hard work. They never gave up,” McCallister said.
In other NCL I action Thursday:
RUP def. Middletown
At Santa Rosa, Roseland University Prep (16-0) completed a second straight undefeated league season with a 25-21, 25-16, 25-12 win over the Middletown Mustangs (9-7).
“RUP’s game is just waiting for you to make mistakes,” Middletown head coach Vanessa Davis said. “Defensively I’m going to have to change the way I coach against these guys. They are unlike any college program I’ve ever sent my girls to.”
Added Davis of RUP’s wear-’em-down defensive strategy, “It works.”
Middletown rallied from a huge deficit in the first set to make a game of it. Jaidyn Brown, Middletown’s senior libero, served eight straight points to get the Mustangs close.
“Brown had a great match,” Davis said. “She passed a great game.”
Brown finished with 23 digs, 10 points and an ace. She also handled all 15 of her serve receptions flawlessly.
Middle hitters Camille Schaffer and Cora Holley also made their presence felt, according to Davis.
“She just owned the net,” Davis said of Schaffer. “It was amazing to see.”
Holley added two kills and four blocks.
Also for Middletown, Mia Hoogendoorn finished with four kills and Skylar Williams had three.
Middletown will apply for an at-large berth in the North Coast Section Division 4 playoffs that begin next Tuesday. The Division 4 field will be released Sunday after the at-large and seeding meeting.
“We’ll see how it plays out,” Davis said. “Hopefully it’s not over for my (six) seniors. They don’t want it to be over.”
RUP also won the JV match, 25-5, 25-15.
St. Helena def. Lower Lake
At Lower Lake, the Lower Lake Trojans honored seniors Madalynn Chernoh, Avery Adamcyk, Izabella Salazar and Katelyn Rosales before taking the court in their league and season finale against the St. Helena Saints, who won the match 25-21, 25-14, 21-25, 25-18.
Lower Lake went 1-15 in league play to St. Helena’s 7-9.
“Everyone fought hard tonight for the seniors,” Lower Lake head coach Kate Anderson said. “We came together and fought hard as a team.”
And no one fought harder than Chernoh, who sustained an ankle injury on the first point of the third set and had to be carried off the court. She returned to play the fourth set with a taped ankle.
“She was able to put weight on it and she wanted to return,” Anderson said of Chernoh. “We had it checked out and there was no swelling. She said she didn’t feel or hear a pop, it was more like a pull.”
Chernoh was able to play effectively before and after the injury, according to Anderson.
“Her net game was really strong and she didn’t miss a serve all night,” Anderson said.
Anderson played her seniors throughout the match.
“They played almost non-stop,” she said.
“We definitely wanted to end strong and I think we did,” Anderson said. “If we had played like this the first time we played St. Helena, we would have beaten them for sure. We’ve improved but so have they.”
St. Helena won the JV match 25-18, 25-16.
