Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Del Norte players react during Tuesday night’s game at Arcata High.

The Del Norte Warriors took a significant step toward a Big 5 championship on the volleyball court on Tuesday night with a straight sets win at Arcata.

After edging the defending champion Tigers in a five-set thriller in Crescent City in their league opener three weeks ago, the Del Norte girls ran out a more comfortable victory this time around.

The Warriors won 25-18, 25-15, 25-18 and improved to 5-0 in league with three games remaining. 

The Eureka Loggers, who also won on Tuesday, remain their closest challengers and well in the hunt with just one loss in five games.

The two league frontrunners will face off at Eureka on Thursday of next week.

McKenna Curtis finished with 16 kills to lead the Del Norte offense at Arcata, as well as adding five digs, while teammate Lauren Stutes had six kills and two blocks for kills.

Lili Nunez also was instrumental in the win and finished with 26 assists, three kills and three digs, while Breann Winingham had three kills and a block for a kill, Reece White had three blocks for kills and two digs, and Bliss Blackburn had four digs and three kills.

Rounding out a good team performance for the league leaders, Lily Wilson had a kill and a block for a kill, and Khloe Smith and Sheena Xiong each had four digs

Quincy Collins finished with a team-high six kills for Arcata, while Sydney Hasselquist had five kills, Lily Rust-Kelley had 10 digs and Nora Talty finished with 15 assists.