Sports

Eagles experience up-and-down week

Matthew Semisch

10/14/2014

The Newburg-Westhope (N-W) volleyball team started last week off with a bang but ended it with more of a whimper.

It began on Tuesday in Newburg when the Eagles downed District 11 rival Drake-Anamoose (D-A) in straight sets.

The Lady Raiders didn’t make things easy on their hosts, but N-W did just enough in each set to win 25-23, 25-23 and 25-20.

Eagles head coach Kaitie Fluhrer was pleased with the victory but felt her team got too complacent at times.

“I tell my girls not to get too relaxed when we get a lead,” Fluhrer said, “And sometimes I think that we do get a little too relaxed, and that team ends up coming back and makes it an interesting game.

“We have to get out of the habit of getting complacent and instead keep going and finish teams off. Drake is a good team, and they gave us a run for our money and we just happened to pull it out in the end.

“It was a fun and exciting game,” she continued, “But ‘exhausting’ is another good word for it.”

Thursday night saw N-W record a more comfortable win when the Eagles defeated Velva 3-1 on the road.

N-W won the first two sets 25-21 and 25-19. The Aggies then scrapped to win the third set 26-24, but the Eagles bounced back in the fourth to win 25-23.

The Eagles then took part in the Rolla Invitational on Saturday. It was there that N-W defeated Bottineau and Towner-Granville-Upham, split with Dunseith and lost twice to North Star and once each to Rolla and Rolette.

N-W will host Burke Central this Tuesday in Westhope.