Sports

Eagles, Stars tuning up for District 11 tourney

By Matthew Semisch

10/21/2014

With less than two weeks to go until the District 11 tournament gets under way, the volleyball teams from Bottineau High and Newburg-Westhope (N-W) already know who their first postseason opponents will be.

Before those matches take place Oct. 30 in Bottineau, though, the Stars of BHS and the N-W Eagles still have a little more business to tend to.

Bottineau wrapped up its slate of District 11 regular season games last Tuesday at home. Velva was the Stars’ opponent in BHS’s penultimate home match of the regular season, and the Stars dominated en route to a 3-0 win.

Velva found itself in a world of trouble from the very beginning on Tuesday. Bottineau kicked out of first gear almost immediately and rattled off an 11-1 run to open the match.

The Stars won that first set 25-9. They didn’t have a much more difficult time in the second and third sets, either, winning those 25-17 and 25-12, respectively.

Bottineau head coach Steve Dunrud was pleased with his team’s ability to gain the upper hand right away. Jumping out to such a big lead, he thought, helped the Stars enormously as the match went on.

“With a young team like us,” Dunrud said, “When you get something positive like that going, it’s easy to keep that going.

“Velva’s own inexperience showed because sometimes it’s hard to stop the negative plays like we had with that run, but I felt really good about how we started off the match. That run let our girls relax a little and get into the match the way they wanted to, and that is definitely an advantage for a team like ours.”

Bottineau will host the District 11 tournament Oct. 30-31 and Nov. 3 by virtue of having won the competition last year. It was Velva, in fact, that the Stars beat in the district tourmament final a year after the Aggies defeated Bottineau in the 2012 district final.

Before the Stars open play in the 2014 edition of the tournament as its No. 3 seed, they will host Rolla on Friday before visiting Rolette-Wolford next Monday.

EAGLES WRAP UP NO. 5 SEED

N-W ended District 11 regular season play last Monday with a four-set win at Sawyer. The Eagles fell 28-26 in the first set before winning the next three 25-19, 25-23 and 25-19.

“We knew we wouldn’t have an easy game with Sawyer, (because) they are a scrappy team,” N-W head coach Kaitie Fluhrer said. “It was an important win for us both for a district spot and for a confidence boost going into the tournament.”

The Eagles then hosted Burke Central on Tuesday in Westhope. N-W couldn’t pick up a second win in as many nights, however, as the Eagles fell in four sets (25-16, 25-16, 21-25, 25-14) to the visiting Titans.

The Eagles will wrap up their home slate on Thursday in Newburg. Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood will be N-W’s opponent for the Eagles’ five seniors’ final home match.

N-W will then close out the regular season next Monday at Berthold-North Shore.

DISTRICT SEEDS SET

Rugby will open the District 11 tournament as its top seed. Both the Panthers and Sawyer will have byes in the first round by virtue of finishing first and second in regular season play.

Bottineau finished third, just ahead of Towner-Granville-Upham (T-G-U) in fourth place. N-W locked up the No. 5 spot, one place ahead of Velva in sixth.

Drake-Anamoose finished last among the seven teams in the district.

Bottineau will open district tournament play on Oct. 30 against Velva, while N-W will meet T-G-U that same day.

The top four teams from the tournament will advance to the Class B Region 6 tournament.