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RED BLUFF — Even with a heavy hitter like Jaklyn Wheeler around, the Spartans didn't figure to be league title contender at the start of the season.

They are now.

Wheeler had 34 kills and Red Bluff delivered a strong defensive effort in beating visiting Paradise 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 25-17 on Thursday.

The victory kept the Spartans in first place in the Eastern Athletic League with a 5-1 record (17-13 overall) along with Foothill.

"I didn't think we would be consistent enough for us to challenge in the EAL," Spartans head volleyball coach Kim Wheeler said. "I thought at this point we would be 1-5, not 5-1."

Well, Red Bluff has to be considered a strong contender in a league with plenty of good teams. Shasta is a game behind the Spartans and Cougars with the Bobcats 93-3 EAL, 17-11), Enterprise and Chico two games astern.

"I love it," Kim Wheeler said. "It's a free-for-all. Anybody can beat anybody on any given night."

On Thursday, it was Red Bluff downing another young, yet dangerous team in Paradise (3-3 EAL, 17-11).

The difference in the mind of the Spartans coach was her team's defense. Libero Kaitlin Darnell had 22 digs, not including a couple of great gets to keep points alive. Setter Janae Rodriguez had 14 digs to go along with her 44 assists, Wheeler had 15 digs and Miranda Clawson added 11 digs.

"Our defense was what won the game for us," Kim Wheeler said. "Kaitlin was outstanding. Miranda was outstanding."

In the mind of Paradise coach John Parks, it was his team's inability to get the ball to Bobcat hitters enough.

"It came down to passing," Parks said. "It came down to passing. They passed the ball better and got the ball to their hitters more than we did. If we can get the ball to our setter, we can hit with anybody."

Bobcats setter Tanya Angeli had 28 assists. Paradise had five different players with at least five kills, led by junior outside hitter Karly Manwill's 12.

Still, Paradise is a difficult team to take down. The Spartans led in all four sets, but struggled to close things out. The Bobcats rallied from a 17-9 hole in the first hole to make a game of it, then came back from an 18-12 deficit in the second set to knot the match up.

At that point Wheeler, the ace junior outside hitter, was having trouble putting balls down and committing a number of hitting errors.

"It's just about consistency," Wheeler said. "Sometimes, I'm on. Sometimes, I'm not. Fortunately, I was on a bit more later in the match."

Her last big hitting error was a ball hit long that cut what had been an 18-11 Red Bluff lead in the third set to 21-19. But junior middle hitter Vanessa Willard put down one of her 10 kills to give the Spartans a small cushion, enough for them to hold on to the set.

By the fourth set, Red Bluff was through having Paradise hang around. After the Bobcats closed to 12-11 on back-to-back service aces from Angeli, the Spartans would win 8 of the next 11 points. Fittingly, Wheeler got the final four Spartan points, all on overpowering kills.

Jeffrey Jen can be reached at 225-8228 or at jjen@redding.com.