Sports
Eagles get district victory
Tyler Ohmann
10/02/2012
It was a strong week for the Newburg-Westhope Eagles as they captured their second district victory on Tuesday and narrowly lost a district match on Thursday.
The Eagles began the week with a win in Newburg over the visiting Towner-Granville-Upham (TGU) Titans.
The Titans jumped out to an early lead, winning the first set 25-16. However the Eagles stepped up after the loss and won the next three sets to get their second straight home win.
“It feels really good, and we had a couple girls that we had to sub in there right at the end, because they can only play so much,” Fluhrer said. “We did some switching and I think it worked for us for the better.”
Although it wasn’t easy for the Eagles, winning narrowly in games two and three 25-23 and 25-20 respectively.
Helping for the Eagles were some young girls entering the game to give their hitters a rest and out to serve as well.
“We have some girls that are willing to let a different server come in for them,” Fluhrer said. “That is just the kind of attitude we have on the team. They want what’s best for the team.”
“It helps keep our hitters ready to go, and they get pretty jacked up on the bench,” Fluhrer continued.
“But the switching has helped us, for this game anyway.”
The Eagles used the wins in the prior sets as momentum to fuel a 25-15 fourth set win.
Senior Becca Christensen, who was moved to libero in practice earlier in the week had a career-high 24 digs in the win.
“For the first game it went really well, it was the first time I had done it,” Christensen said. “I just started it this week in practice.”
“Early I was a little nervous, but I came out and it worked,” Christensen continued. “I did well, so that’s good.”
Sophomore Molly Lodoen had 20 set-assists, while fellow sophomore Lauren Mach had a team-high seven kills. Senior Hadlee Schell rounded out the Eagles leaders with four ace serves.
“It was a district win and a home win, so I’m happy,” Christensen said. “We were a little down after the first one, but we picked it up and decided we were going to win the next three.”
There was a big crowd at Tuesday’s game as they played against geographically near opponent TGU. Christensen didn’t think the large crowd for the opposition had much effect on the Eagles though.
“I don’t think it affected us,” Christensen said about the crowd. “We just came out played our hardest, and it worked.”
The Eagles tried to extend their success from Tuesday as they played in Rugby on Thursday.
However it was the Panthers who came out on top in a five-set struggle.
The Panthers hopped out to an early lead taking the first set 25-17, but the Eagles bounced back with a hard-fought 26-24 victory in the second set.
Rugby continued the back-and-forth nature of the match with a 25-16 victory in the third set.
Newburg-Westhope forced a fifth determining set with a 25-23 win in the fourth set.
However, it was the Panthers who emerged victorious with a narrow 15-12 win in the final set.
Rugby’s Laura Fritel and Aubrey Hovland as well as the Eagles Schell all had game-bests with 13 kills.
Again Christensen played strongly for the Eagles as she had team-highs in aces (two) and digs (13).
Lodoen had a season-best 32 set-assists in the loss.
Rugby had strong front play as Taylor Wangerin had 14 blocks in the win.
A big reason for the win and near-loss this past week was an increase focus on covering blocks.
“We stressed that very much, because that’s what hurt us the last game,” Fluhrer said about covering. “They came out and did what I asked them to do.”
The week pushed the Eagles record to 5-13 overall and 2-2 in district play.
The Eagles continued their District 11 schedule last night at Velva, but scores and stats were unavailable for press time.
The next game for the Eagles is at 7 p.m., tonight in Newburg as they host the Drake-Anamoose Lady Raiders.