PREP ROUNDUP Yuba City falls to Chico in five sets

After turning in a strong showing with five wins at the Flock Tournament in Elk Grove over the weekend, Yuba City High’s volleyball team returned home and gave defending Northern Section Division II champion Chico all it could handle on Tuesday night at Honker Gym.

Unfortunately for the Honkers, they just couldn’t close out the Panthers in the end.

Yuba City won the first two sets by scores of 30-28 and 25-22, only to see Chico even things up by winning the next two games, 25-23, 25-18. The Panthers then carried that momentum into the deciding fifth set, winning 15-5 to leave town with the victory.

Lexi Xiong recorded a team-high nine kills, and Ola Coker added six blocks and five kills to lead the way for the Honkers at the net. Mia Apodaca made 18 digs and Brianna Santana handed out 14 assists to round out the top performers for the Honkers.

It was a final nonleague tune-up for Yuba City (6-5), which begins play in the newly realigned Capital Valley Conference on Thursday at home against Antelope.

Nevada Union 3, River Valley 2 In Yuba City – In a match that was decided by the closest of margins, the Miners held off the Falcons to earn a narrow five-set victory.

Nevada Union won the back-and-forth match by game scores of 25-14, 24-26, 26-24, 22-25 and 16-14.

Jaclyn Ruiz finished with 12 kills, 14 digs, two blocks and three aces, and Sarah Hankins recorded 10 kills, 16 assists and nine digs to pace River Valley. Sophia Alley chipped in with 10 kills and four blocks, Thya Sengwong had 18 assists, 17 digs and three kills, and Alexis Topete made 19 digs in the Falcons’ first loss of the season.

River Valley (2-1) will look to bounce back on Thursday night at Woodland.