Sports

Eagles hope to turn the corner

By Bottineau Courant Staff

10/16/2012

The Newburg-Westhope Eagles had another mixed week with a win, a strong performance in a loss and a pair of losses in tournament play.

The Eagles kicked off the week last Monday with a 3-1 win over visiting Burke County.

Newburg-Westhope jumped out to an early 2-0 lead winning sets one and two 25-19 and 25-23 respectively.

Burke County won the third set 26-24 in a hard-fought set.

The Eagles closed out the match though in the fourth set with another tight win 25-23.

Sophomore Lauren Mach led the Eagles with a team-best 14 digs and six kills. Senior Hadlee Schell also played strongly with team-highs in kills (seven) and blocks (eight). Ashlyn Huber added four aces, while Molly Lodoen had 14 set-assists.
After the win in Westhope on Monday the Eagles hoped to continue the momentum when they hosted the Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood (MLS) Mavericks on Thursday.

Things began in the favor of the Eagles as they dominated the Mavericks in the first set with a 25-12 win.

However, MLS recovered nicely rallying to win the final three sets 25-16, 25-19 and 25-20.

Callie Carlson had 11 kills and four aces to lead the Mavericks. Shania Brackenbury had 22 digs in the winning effort for MLS.

Bailey Tofteland and Becca Christensen led the defensive effort for the Eagles with 23 and 21 digs respectively.

Schell led all hitters with 12 kills and nine blocks. Lodoen had 23 set-assists and five blocks in the losing effort.

Newburg-Westhope closed out the week with two tough match-ups in the Rolla Invite last Saturday.
First the Eagles dropped a match 2-0 against Rolette-Wolford. The Comets won set one 25-22 and then finished the Eagles with a 25-16 win in the second set.

The Eagles then fell to the eventual tournament runner-ups the Harvey-Wells County Hornets.
Harvey won both sets, getting a 25-18 win in set one and a 25-15 win in set two.

Newburg-Westhope now sits at 6-18 overall on the season, and still sit at 2-4 in the district with one game remaining.

The Eagles next game, at 7 p.m., tonight in Sawyer will be their final District 11 game and determine their seed in the upcoming district 11 tournament beginning on Oct. 25 in Velva.