Sports
Stars clean up with sweep of Dragons, Titans
Tyler Ohmann
10/02/2012
The Bottineau Stars enjoyed continued success as they extended their match win streak to four with to 3-0 sweeps this past week against District 11 opponents.
It started Tuesday with a 3-0 sweep in Dunseith, as the Stars traveled east and trounced the Lady Dragons in consecutive sets.
The wins continued to roll in as the Stars breezed passed the Titans of Towner-Granville-Upham at home on Thursday.
First, the Stars were able to capture their third straight district win as they easily went on the road and beat Dunseith on Tuesday.
The Stars rallied with wins of 25-7 in both the first and third sets, and won 25-11 in the second set to earn the sweep.
Senior Katryna Hahn had a team-best 14 kills in the win. Bailey Neubauer, the Stars junior setter, had a season-best nine aces and also added 26 set-assists.
Junior Rachael Fix had a team-best four digs and also added three aces.
Fix is excited with the progress that the Stars have made this season. The Stars had to move on this season after three All-Region players graduated.
“We have come a long way since the beginning of the season,” Fix said. “Playing together was a big issue, and we’re finally getting into a stride where we can do that. If we keep improving until the end of the season, I think we’ll do really well.”
Elizabeth Handeland led the Dragons with three kills.
The Stars’ success continued on Thursday with another 3-0 sweep, this time at home against TGU.
Bottineau looked strong early getting a 25-6 first set victory.
The Titans closed the gap in the second and third sets, but were unable to upend the Stars who won 25-13 and 25-18 in the final two sets.
“It does because we have tournament play less than a month away, and the big DLB tournament and Harvey on Tuesday,” Fix said about the Stars momentum after the wins. “It does carry through when we can do it in three sets like this.”
Fix, who was tied for a team-best 10 digs in the contest, said the Stars really begin to play well when they can control their reception of the other team’s serve.
“When we serve/receive well we usually do well,” Fix said. “When it falls apart Bailey has a hard time getting the ball because we’re are shanking it all over the place.”
“When we do well on the basics, and getting the ball to Bailey we do really well,” Fix added.
The Stars did get the ball to Neubauer in the game, as she had a game-high 20 set-assists. Neubauer also continued her strong play at the service line as she had seven aces.
Hahn again led the offense for the Stars as she had a team-high 11 kills and also tied with Fix with 10 digs.
Junior Karlee McCloud added four aces for the Stars in the sweep.
The service game of the Stars is one of their strengths during the four-game streak. Fix is at the head of that service group, despite having gotten her first missed serve in a win over Drake-Anamoose last week.
“I missed my first one at Drake, and my confidence hit an all-time low, but now getting back into it and when I go back to serve I feel confident I can get it in,” Fix said. “It is my job to make it over.”
Fix got back to the strong service game, going 100 percent in the two sweeps this past week. She is now 141-for-142 on the season.
Following the pair of sweeps the Stars are now 14-5 overall and 4-1 in District 11 play.
Bottineau will be tested in the upcoming week as they will play at 7 p.m., tonight in Harvey and then host district rival Rugby at 7 p.m., on Thursday.