Sports

Eagles split despite running into issues

By Matthew Semisch

09/23/2014

Newburg-Westhope’s (N-W) volleyball team went a respectable 1-1 last week to move to 4-5-1 on the season, but the Eagles were made to work very hard for what they got.

A two-match week for the Eagles began on Tuesday when they visited Rolla. N-W could have boosted its record to the .500 mark with a pair of wins last week, and that made success against the Bulldogs all the more desirable.

The Eagles started out well  by winning the first two sets 25-23 and 25-19. The wheels fell off after that, though, as Rolla fought back and won the next three sets 25-17, 25-17 and 15-12 to take the match.

A chance to avenge that loss then came on Thursday when Dunseith visited Newburg, and the Eagles took advantage.

Dunseith managed to hang around against the favored Eagles, but N-W eventually came away with a four-set victory (26-24, 26-28, 25-21, 25-19) over the Lady Dragons.

Although her Eagles picked up a much-needed win on Thursday, N-W head coach Kaitie Fluhrer thought it could’ve been an easier win than it was. Wear and tear are starting to set in on the Eagles as the season moves along, but Fluhrer expected a better performance against Dunseith.

“It was kind of a completely different team that showed up tonight, and we just didn’t play to our potential,” Fluhrer said.

“We have some girls that have had some little injuries that have piled up, but we’ve got an open weekend now and we’ll try to recover before next week starts.”

If such a down night was inevitable, though, Fluhrer said she was happy it came early on before her team gets into the meat of its District 11 schedule starting this Tuesday at Bottineau.

“We saw what happens when we have an off game and can work to iron that out in practice,” Fluhrer said. “I’m glad it happened now rather than later