Sports

Stars show growth at home tournament

By Matthew Semisch

09/09/2014

After two tough yet encouraging losses to open the 2014 season, Bottineau High volleyball coach Steve Dunrud was hoping on Saturday that his inexperienced team would keep moving forward at its home tournament.

That’s exactly what the Stars did, rattling off three wins in a row before finishing in fourth place at the 12-team BHS Early Bird Tournament.

Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood (M-L-S) won the competition by defeating Rugby in the final. North Star, one of the favorites to win the Class B state title this year, beat Bottineau in straight sets in Saturday’s third-place game after the Bearcats were upset by M-L-S in the semifinals.

Bottineau fell at that stage, too, dropping a three-set match against Rugby. Up to that point and even including during that clash with the Panthers, though, the Stars didn’t look like the usual sort of team that was still looking for its first win in the team’s third time out.

In those two season-opening losses last week at Des Lacs-Burlington (25-20, 25-18, 25-21)and M-L-S (25-23, 25-13, 23-25, 25-14), the Stars’ effort was often there but the hard work didn’t beget wins. At Bottineau’s home invitational, however, solid performances were accompanied by a trio of wins and a top-four finish.

“It ended up being a good tournament for us,” Dunrud said. “We as coaches talk with the girls about playing in tournaments and winning more than you lose and winning a trophy, and we did both of those things today.

“I thought that we gained a lot today and got a lot of playing time, served pretty well, and our offense seems to be really coming around. When we pass the ball around like we should, like we did today, we can be a really good volleyball team.”

The Stars won the tournament’s three-team Pool A, defeating Region 6 rivals Surrey (25-8, 25-16) and Velva (25-16, 25-22) in a pair of two-set matches. With as many teams playing as there were on Saturday and only three courts to play on, pool play strictly consisted of two-set matches ahead of a bracket stage that featured best-of-three matches.

By virtue of winning its pool, Bottineau picked up a bye in the first round of the bracket stage before facing Towner-Granville-Upham (T-G-U) in the quarterfinals. It was there that the Stars swept T-G-U 25-18 and 25-22 to book a place in the semifinals.

Unfortunately for Bottineau, that semifinal match against Rugby was where the Stars’ winning streak ended. The Panthers moved on to the final after outlasting Bottineau 25-22, 26-28 and 15-11 in three grueling sets.

That elongated second set provided as much proof of how quickly the Stars have developed as anything else that happened on Saturday did. Rugby opened the frame on a 12-0 run, but Bottineau fought all the way back, won the set and forced a first-to-15 decider.

Speaking after the tournament ended, Dunrud said he felt that that one set could prove as a landmark moment in terms of his team’s development early on this season.

“The girls could’ve given up early in that second set, but they didn’t,” Dunrud said. “They fought back and won and forced a third game and played well in that one, too.

“I think it’s things like that that help the girls learn things about themselves, and I hope that we can see as much improvement in the next couple weeks as we did here in the first couple weeks up through today.”

The long day then seemed to catch up with the Stars in the third-place game, and it was there that North Star rolled to a 25-14 and 25-5 victory.

Despite seeing his Bottineau team get swept by a formidable Bearcats team, Dunrud came away pleased what he saw on Saturday. His is a very young team this year after five starters graduated in May, and Bottineau’s early-season tournament served the host team well.

“We have a lot of inexperienced players, and what they got today is really good for them,” Dunrud said. “We’ve got a lot of girls who are on the varsity court that weren’t on the varsity last year and are making their first varsity starts.

“We’ve got a group of girls that is learning how to work together and communicate and know what they’re trying to do together as a team on the court, and that’s something that takes time but it’s coming around.”

Bottineau (3-4-0) is back in action this week with a pair of matches. The Stars visit Minot Bishop Ryan on Tuesday night before Dunseith comes to Bottineau on Thursday. That match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

EAGLES FINISH NINTH

Newburg-Westhope (N-W) didn’t fare as well as Bottineau did at the Early Bird Tournament, but there were some positives for the Eagles to take from the experience.

N-W opened the 2014 season last week with home wins over St. John (25-18, 25-20, 25-23) and Surrey (25-22, 25-16, 23-25, 25-18). In the first phase of Bottineau’s tournament, however, the Eagles ran into problems.

They finished in third place in Pool D after being swept by Harvey-Wells County (25-23, 25-11) and splitting with Rugby (14-25, 25-23). The Eagles then lost in three sets to T-G-U (25-21, 22-25, 15-9) to drop into a consolation bracket.

The Eagles bounced back well in their next match, besting Wilton-Wing 25-18, 25-27 and 15-11 in a loser-out match. After that, N-W downed Velva in straight sets (25-21, 26-24) to finish the tournament in ninth place.

With her Eagles now sitting at 4-1-1 on the season, N-W head coach Kaitie Fluhrer said she’s pleased with her team’s development thus far.

“We have some things to work on, but overall we’re pretty pleased with how the team’s come together and how hard they’re working,” Fluhrer said.

”So far, I think a lot of things with our team are coming together how we’d like them to.”

N-W is set to visit Rolette-Wolford on Thursday before taking part in Glenburn’s tournament on Saturday.