The race for the 2024 Little 5 championship in volleyball took an interesting turn on Tuesday night.

And a good week continued for the Ferndale Wildcats.

Defending league champion St. Bernard’s traveled to Ferndale and fell in four sets to the Cats, 18-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-19.

The conference loss was the first for the Crusaders in three years and it was Ferndale’s first victory over their rivals since Oct. 2021.

Even more impressive is the fact the Ferndale girls had to overcome a shaky start that saw them drop the opening set.

“We kind of got off to a rocky start, but once they found their groove they just started playing,” Ferndale head coach Jessi Grant said of her players. “They were scrapping around and they played really well tonight.”

The loss was obviously a disappointing one for the Crusaders, who dropped to 1-1 in the Little 5.

“It didn’t go our way,” SB head coach Rachel Evans said. “Our serve receive and passing was off, which made it difficult to get anything going.”

So too did the play of Ferndale’s Saige Machado. 

The Wildcats standout had a big all-around game, finishing with eight blocks, eight saves, seven tips and six aces.

“She had a great game,” Grant said of Machado, who helped kickstart her teammates with a run of eight straight serves in the second set.

“We got the energy back after that and it really went from there.”

Clara Albee also impressed for the Cats, who continued their impressive week after winning all five of their games at the weekend Hoopa tournament.

Albee finished with 15 assists, 11 saves and six aces, while Danica Dowd added eight aces and six saves and Amaya Mathews had 12 kills and six blocks.

Olivia Gossi added four digs and three kills and Izzy Ellsmore had four saves and three aces.

Jocelyn Sundberg had a good game for the visitors and finished with a team-best 14 kills and eight digs, while Alyssa Boham added seven kills and nine digs.

Makinsey Lemley and Ella Hart both impressed at serving with six aces each.

The two rivals will face off a second time in conference play at St. Bernard’s later in the season.

“Tonight’s loss gives us a lot to work on this week in practice,” Evans added. “We have a talented group of athletes so my expectations for the rest of the season are high.”

With the win, the Cats are now 1-0 in conference play.

Next up, on Thursday, Ferndale plays at Hoopa and St. Bernard’s entertains Northcoast Prep.