Sports
Stars capture third at tournament
Tyler Ohmann
08/28/2012
The prep volleyball season kicked off this past Saturday as Bottineau hosted its annual early bird tournament.
Twelve teams from all around the area participated in the tournament which had five pool play rounds followed by a championship round to determine places.
The Stars finished 5-1 in matches on the day, by winning 10 of 13 sets they played in. The Stars tournament concluded with a 2-1 match victory over Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood, capturing Bottineau a third-place finish.
Harvey-Wells County beat North Star in three games to win the championship.
“We probably finished where I hoped we’d be,” said Stars head coach Steve Dunrud. “We won five out of six matches, and I knew a couple of them would be tough matches.”
In the first match the Stars had no problem dispatching the Newburg-Westhope Eagles, winning the match in straight sets 25-11, 25-16.
Senior Katryna Hahn led the stars with five kills. She also added three aces in the win. Junior Danielle McDonald had six aces to lead the Stars serving attack, while Rachael Fix had a team-best seven digs. Bailey Neubauer, a junior, had 12-set assists to round out the Stars attack.
Stepping on the court and getting some live game experience was something that McDonald said the tournament really helps with.
“It feels good because we don’t get a lot (of competition) in practice with the JV girls, because they’re not as experienced,” McDonald said. “So it was a good experience getting actual hits.”
The second round of pool play the Stars came out strong against eventual-champion Harvey-Wells County. The Stars wound up winning the match after a 25-22 win and a 24-25 defeat left them with more total points.
McDonald stepped up big in the match, leading the Stars with seven kills and 12 digs. Fellow junior Courtney Gallagher also had seven kills in the match.
The Stars easily put away Tioga in the next match, taking both sets 25-6, 25-13.
This time Hahn stepped up for the Stars leading them with seven kills and four aces. Neubauer had 20 assists in the win.
The Stars tasted their first defeat in the fourth round of pool play as the Glenburn Panthers out scored the Stars 41-39 in split sets. Glenburn won the first set 25-14, but the Stars rallied back and stole the second set 25-16.
McDonald said it will take some getting used to playing together, but thinks the tournament went a long way in helping them do so.
“It was a little frustrating at times, because we are all getting used to playing with each other,” McDonald said. “This tournament helps so much, because it tells us who’s going to be our competition for the year, and what we need to work on.”
Sophomore Stephanie Brenden led the Stars in the match with four kills and two blocks.
“I knew Harvey would be tough and we came away with that, but Glenburn played very well against us, give them credit,” Dunrud said.
The final pool play match for the Stars was against district rival Rugby. Despite a strong showing from both squads, Bottineau came out on top with 25-22 and 25-20 wins.
McDonald again had a good match racking up six kills and seven digs, both team-highs. Neubauer had 13 assists and five digs to help the Stars win.
In total the Stars accumulated 12 points in pool play, which left them one point short of Harvey-Wells County, and put them in the third-place game against the Mavericks.
“Overall I was really happy, I saw lots of positive things,” Dunrud said. “There were times when we played not so good, but we played some really good volleyball.”
In the third-place match, the Stars won easily in game one 25-15, but faltered slightly in game two as the Mavericks nabbed a win 25-20. However, the Stars rallied in the final game to take a 15-11 win and capture third place.
The trio of Neubauer, Hahn and McDonald came up big in the match. Neubauer had 33 set-assists and eight digs, while McDonald had 11 kills and 10 digs. Hahn had a team-high 18 kills as well as a team-best four blocks.
“The girls did a really good job, and to get that many games in today, that’s going to help us down the road,” Dunrud said. “The biggest thing is that you get together and play a lot of games.”
“For a new team they really showed a lot,” Dunrud added.
In total Hahn led the Stars with 41 kills and six blocks and 10 aces. McDonald had a team-best 35 digs and also had 35 kills and eight aces.
Neubuauer had 104 set-assists, as well as 10 aces.
Gallgher had 24 kills, while Brenden had 21 kills. Fix finished with 30 digs.
McDonald said that the work on hitting in practice appeared to pay off, but that there are other things the Stars need to work on in order to move forward.
“We’ve really worked on hitting in practice, and it is showing when we play,” McDonald said. “We need to cover and communicate a lot better, but our swings are really good.”
The Stars continue their season this week with matches tonight at Des Lacs-Burlington and Thursday at Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood.