Sports

Loss to Sawyer drops Eagles to seventh seed for district tournament

By Bottineau Courant Staff

10/23/2012

The Newburg-Westhope Eagles volleyball team dropped into the seventh seed in the upcoming District 11 tournament this past week after they lost their fifth match in district play this season.

The loss came at the hands of the Sawyer Flashes in a five-set marathon, which vaulted the Flashes ahead of the Eagles in the standings.

It was Newburg-Westhope’s (6-19, 2-5) only match of the week.

Sawyer took the advantage in set one of the match as they downed the Eagles easily 25-16. Newburg-Westhope bounced back in set two with a 25-23 win.

The Flashes reclaimed the lead with a 25-18 set one in the third set, but the Eagles earned a 25-18 victory of their own to even it at two sets apiece.

In the ever-important fifth set it was the Flashes who came out on top in a 15-12 win to jump ahead of the Eagles in the District 11 standings.

Hadlee Schell led all players with 36 digs. She also had a team-best 10 blocks and eight kills.

Sophomores Lauren Mach (six kills, 10 blocks) and Molly Lodoen (18 set-assists, 28 digs) also did well for the Eagles in the loss.

Sawyer had four players with over 20 digs in the win. Mara Roteliuk was strong overall with nine kills, 21 digs and nine blocks.

The Eagles also played last night in Berthold, but scores and stats were unavailable by press time. Newburg-Westhope plays their final regular season match at 7 p.m. tonight in Rolette.

The Eagles will then play in the District 11 Tournament beginning with a game on Thursday against second-seeded Velva.

The game versus Velva will be the third game of the first day of the tournament, which begins at 3 p.m. The top four teams from the tournament will advance to the Region 6 playoffs in Minot.