UPPER LAKE — When you dominate a league as thoroughly as the Upper Lake Cougars did in the North Central League II this past season, it’s really not a big surprise when all five of your starters end up somewhere on the All-League team.
And that was exactly the case on the 2023 edition of the All-North Central League II girls basketball team where the Upper Lake Cougars pulled down plenty of kudos. They not only won the league for a third season in a row, but they barely worked up a sweat while going undefeated (14-0), part of a record-setting 29-3 campaign for a club that made it as far as the NorCal Division 5 quarterfinals where they lost to a team (Bret Harte of Angels Camp) that is playing for the state title this weekend.
It’s the third straight season that Upper Lake has placed all of its starters on the All-League team (it also happened in 2020 and 2022, with no season taking place in 2021 because of COVID-19).
Co-most valuable player honors went to the team’s two top players, senior guard Maddy Young, the best defensive players in the Redwood Empire’s small-school ranks, and senior center Taylar Minnis, the team’s dominant inside presence and leading scorer. Both Young and Minnis were first-team selections in 2022 when co-MVP honors went to two other Cougars, senior Zoey Petrie and junior Heaven’Lee Loans Arrow.
Senior Madison Noble, a second-team pick a year ago, earned first-team honors this season. Cougars honored on the All-League team for the first time were senior Kat Lopez-Geary, named to the second team, and junior Nya Marcks, who received an honorable mention.
Runner-up Sonoma Academy had four players honored, including first-team selections Lael Gott, a senior, and Ellie Steam, a sophomore. Also for the Coyotes, Anny Tyko, a sophomore, was named to the second team while Lily Gelb, a junior, received an honorable mention.
Other first-team players were Karen Gonzalez, a senior, from Tomales and Anie Lambrcht, a senior, from Credo.
Upper Lake’s 14 league wins were nearly half of the team’s victory total, one that tied the 1993-94 Upper Lake girls club (29-1) for most wins in a single season, which is also the Lake County record (girls or boys) for wins in a single season.
The Cougars followed up their league championship by going 3-1 and taking runner-up honors in the North Coast Section Division 5 tournament. They went 1-1 in the NorCals, beating Portola at home to avenge a first-round loss to the same team in 2020, before losing to Bret Harte on the road.
