Clarkson/Leigh falls to Pender to end regular season

The Clarkson/Leigh Patriots lost their final match of the regular season on Monday, falling 3-1 at home to Pender.

The Pendragons won set one 25-20 and set two 25-13. Clarkson/Leigh took set three 25-23 before Pender closed out the match with a 29-27 set four win.

Shelby Paprocki finished with 15 kills and 14 digs while Hannah Kasik totaled 11 kills and 7 digs. Camille Koehn notched 10 kills while Maddie Cerv posted 28 digs. Kaegan Held recorded 13 digs and 16 set assists while Kaitlyn Becher dished out 18 set assists.

I'm sure it wasn't the finish to the end of the regular season the Patriots were looking for. I'm sure Clarkson/Leigh feels they could have won that last regular season match.

The Patriots (11-18) take on Battle Creek (14-16) in the bunny bracket match of the C2-5 sub district tournament at Norfolk Catholic on Monday.

The two teams met on September 19th at the Stanton Invitational with the Braves winning 2-0.

Battle Creek went 1-3 at the Mid-State Conference Tournament, losing 3-2 to Crofton and Boone Central/Newman Grove on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, and beating O'Neill 2-0 and losing 2-1 to Norfolk Catholic on Thursday.

The Braves are a fairly decent team, and I don't think Clarkson/Leigh is going to have an easy time with Battle Creek whatsoever.

Neither team was particularly impressive at the end of the season, and I look for Monday's match to be an interesting and entertaining one.

This is a tough sub district to be in. The Patriots have had a better season than they did last year, but if they win they get Stanton in the next sub district match.

So even if Clarkson/Leigh beats the Braves, they're going to have to turn around and knock off the mighty Mustangs, which is an entirely different challenge in itself.

It would still be good for the Patriots to get the opportunity to play Stanton though. Clarkson/Leigh has to do everything in their power to keep their season going as long as possible.

Monday's match begins at 5:00 p.m. The winner gets the aforementioned Mustang at 7:30.