Sports

Stars split tight matches, fall short at tourney

By Tyler Ohmann (Photo by Scott Wagar)

09/11/2012

­The Bottineau Stars volleyball team endured some tough matches this past week as they played in two five-set matches during the week and then played in several matches at the Glenburn Invite.

The week began for the Stars with a five-set win against Bishop Ryan on the road.

The Stars jumped out to an early lead over the Lions winning the first two sets 25-21 and 26-24.
However, a determined Lions team fired back with wins in the third and fourth sets, 25-15 and 25-14.

Undeterred the Stars blew out the Lions in game five 15-6 to win their seventh match of the season.
With 15 kills senior Katryna Hahn led the Stars to the win. She also had four blocks in the win.

Bailey Neubauer had 27 set-assists and five blocks, both team-highs.

Junior Danielle McDonald had 11 kills and team-bests with 11 digs and four aces in the five-set win.

The Stars then returned home on Thursday to host the Kenmare Honkers for the homecoming game.

The Honkers gained the upper hand in the match taking set one 25-20. The Stars bounced back with a 28-26 win in a marathon game.

Kenmare would dominate game three 25-12 to take a 2-1 lead. Bottineau rallied late set in the fourth to force a deciding fifth set with a 26-24 win.

But the Honkers proved to be too much for the Stars taking the fifth set 15-12 to win the match.
Katie Nelson led the Honkers with 11 kills and eight aces.

Bottineau was led by juniors Courtney Gallagher and McDonald. Gallagher had a game-best 18 kills. McDonald had a team-high 21 digs and also had 15 kills in the tough loss.

The Stars closed out their week with a tournament in Glenburn this past Saturday.

Bottineau began the tourney with a 2-0 pool play win over Surrey. The Stars snuck out a win in game one 24-19 and then dominated game two 23-7.

The second pool play game went just as well for the Stars as they dispatched Sawyer in straight sets 24-22 and 24-16.

Bottineau finished pool play with another 2-0 victory this time over Berthold. The Stars cruised to wins in the match 25-15 and 25-12.

However, the Stars’ momentum on the day was ended by the Kenmare Honkers, who topped the Stars for the second time in three days.

The Stars were defeated by the eventual tournament champion Honkers 25-11 and 25-15.
Kenmare beat Bishop Ryan in straight sets to win the tournament.

Leading Bottineau for the weekend was the senior Hahn with 26 kills, 18 digs and three blocks. Also strong for the Stars were juniors Neubauer (62 assists, 10 aces), Gallagher (22 digs, 11 kills) and McDonald (21 kills, 17 digs, seven aces).

Following the 4-2 week the Stars now stand at 10-4 overall on the season.

Hahn now leads the Stars in kills with 123 on the season and blocks with 23. McDonald has the team lead with 102 digs and is tied with Neubauer for a team-best 26 aces. Neubauer also has a team-best 306 set-assists.

The Stars will next play at 7 p.m. tonight at home against Our Redeemer’s in a big Region 6 match.