UPPER LAKE — Upper Lake High School’s varsity girls basketball team mowed down pretty much everything in its path before Bret Harte High School, the eventual state champion, ended a sensational 2022-23 season for the Cougars and co-head coaches Annie Pivniska Petrie and Raelene Cromwell.
Upper Lake tied a school record and a Lake County record for most wins in a single season by a basketball team, going 29-3. Along the way the Cougars earned a pair of pennants, one for winning a third straight championship in the North Central League II, the other for finishing second in North Coast Section Division 5 behind powerhouse University High School of San Francisco.
Pivniska and Cromwell, both outstanding Upper Lake athletes in their day — Pivniska Petrie had her number retired by the school — are the Lake County Record-Bee’s recipients of the Coach of the Year award for girls sports.
The three teams that beat the Cougars all had incredible seasons as well, especially Bret Harte (26-7) of Angels Camp, but also University (25-5), and Ferndale (21-9), a winner over Upper Lake in the Stokes Tournament at Kelseyville (when both teams were missing a key starter). Ferndale was the NCS Division 6 runner-up and a state quarterfinalist just like Upper Lake. University lost in the quarterfinals of the Division 3 state playoffs.
The 2022-23 Upper Lake squad matched the 29 wins of the 1993-94 Cougars (29-1) — Pivniska Petrie’s senior year at Upper Lake. And 29 years later that No. 29 popped up again.
Upper Lake won its first seven games before losing to Ferndale. The Cougars answered that loss with a 21-game winning streak and didn’t lose again until falling to University in the section finals at Kezar Pavilion. After beating Portola at home in the opening round of the NorCals (state playoffs), the Cougars lost on the road to Bret Harte. The Cougars played a great first quarter against the eventual state champions before running out of gas.
Upper Lake never lost on its home floor in 2022-23 — matching the efficiency of the 1993-94 squad, which won 29 in a row before losing on the road in the NorCal playoffs, Pivniska Petrie’s final high school game.
