Sports

Stars shine brightest

By Matthew Semisch

09/30/2014

When Bottineau High and Newburg-Westhope (N-W) opened Class B District 11 volleyball play against each other last Tuesday, it was an awkward occasion for many people involved.

Nine players on the two teams - six from N-W, three from Bottineau - knew very well many players on the other side of the net. For a couple of hours on Tuesday, it was their job to pretend they didn’t.

Those nine all featured on the Westhope-Newburg-Bottineau (W-N-B) co-op softball team last spring. The Sioux finished in third place at the Class B state softball tournament in Minot in May, thus capping the best season in team history.

That added an intriguing wrinkle to their reunion on Bottineau’s home court on Tuesday. The Stars handled the occasion best, beating N-W in straight sets (25-23, 25-12, 25-22).

“The girls were really excited for this match,” Bottineau head coach Steve Dunrud said, “Because a lot of them obviously know each other so well.

“This was the first time a lot of them had the feeling of playing against some really good friends after having had such a special season, so I’m sure that was strange for them, but I thought that, even with that to deal with, we played well.”

It couldn’t have been easy for Stars players Samantha Colman, Shelby Grenier and Paige Vad to set aside the camaraderie they’ve had with nine of their Eagles counterparts. Dunrud and his coaching staff, however, seemed to get their message across clearly and effectively.

“I told them that between the lines out there we needed to be competitive,” Dunrud said. “After that, you can be the best of  friends, and I felt like the girls were able to put that friendship to one side for a couple hours here.”

N-W gained the upper hand early in Tuesday’s match by jumping out to a 5-1 run in the first set. That opening set remained tight nearly to its conclusion. Bottineau scored three of the set’s final four points, though, to break a 22-22 deadlock.

The second frame went much better for the Stars as N-W failed to keep up. Bottineau jumped out to an 8-3 lead and found itself up 15-6 before coasting to a 13-point win to go up 2-0 in the match.

“We just got too down on ourselves in that second set and dug ourselves into too deep of a hole,” N-W head coach Kaitie Fluhrer said. “We have to learn that we have to come out well and not dig ourselves into a hole, because it’s difficult to get out of that situation when you’re down as far as we were.

“We know how to come back and recover, but we need to all be on the same page if we’re going to do that effectively and we didn’t so much tonight.”

The third set was much more like the first than the second, but again the Eagles came out on the wrong side. A 6-0 run from N-W put the Eagles up 14-9, but Bottineau fought back and eventually won the set and the match.

With the victory, Bottineau moved to 5-6 on the year and 1-0 in District 11 play. In losing its district opener, N-W fell to 4-6-1 overall.

The Stars then pushed their own overall record up to the .500 mark on Thursday thanks to a 3-1 win at Drake-Anamoose.

N-W will try to get back on track this week against a pair of District 11 opponents. The Eagles will host Towner-Granville-Upham (T-G-U) in Newburg on Tuesday before traveling to Rugby on Thursday.

STARS FINISH FOURTH IN DEVILS LAKE

Bottineau was busier than N-W last week and ended the week by taking part in a tournament in Devils Lake. The Stars finished the 12-team tournament in fourth place.

In the tournament’s round-robin first phase, Bottineau posted a 2-1-1 record.

Washburn fell to the Stars (25-21, 25-22), and so did Velva (25-11, 25-20). In that first round, Bottineau also tied Grafton (25-20, 14-25) and lost to Rolette-Wolford (25-22, 25-16).

Bottineau then defeated New Rockford-Sheyenne (25-19, 11-25, 15-6) before dropping a quarterfinal match against Rolette-Wolford (25-21, 25-23).

Grafton then caught the Stars out in the third-place match, winning the teams’ rematch 26-24 and 25-23.

Bottineau (9-9-1) will travel to Langdon-Munich on Tuesday before hosting T-G-U on Thursday.