Sports

Eagles unable to find victory in tight matches

Bottineau Courant Staff

10/30/2012

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The season ended last Friday for Newburg-Westhope volleyball after the second straight defeat at the hands of the Sawyer Flashes.

The Eagles went 1-2 for the week, winning on Tuesday evening in five sets over Rolette-Wolford, and then falling to Velva on Thursday at the District 11 tournament.

Then came the elimination at the hands of the Flashes in a closely contested match.

First on Tuesday, the Eagles were able to survive a big comeback by the Rolette-Wolford Comets. Newburg-Westhope started the match strong with 25-16 and 25-18 wins in the first two sets.

However, the Comets made a charge winning 25-23 and 25-14 in sets three and four.
The Eagles were able to fend off the Comets though in a 15-13 effort in the fifth and final set.
However, the early week win did not translate to tournament success as the seventh-seeded Eagles lost to the host Aggies in the first round on Thursday.

Velva won easily in set one 25-15, but the resilient Eagles did not give up. The Eagles roared back in the second set to beat the heavily favored Aggies 25-23.

The Eagles hung with the Aggies in the third set, but fell 25-20. Newburg-Westhope rallied again in the fourth set and held a 24-22 lead, needing only one point to send the match to a decisive fifth set.

However, the Eagles were unable to win that one point and wound up falling 28-26, giving the Aggies a 3-1 win and pushing the Eagles into a loser-out game on Friday.

Senior Bailey Tofteland played strongly in the match with a team-best in kills (five) and also added 12 digs.

Fellow senior Hadlee Schell helped the Eagles with seven blocks.

On Friday the Eagles season came to a close with a defeat at the hands of the Sawyer Flashes in a loser-out game at the tournament.

The Eagles were able to get out to a fast start, much the same as in the five-set loss against the Flashes last week, with a 26-24 win in the first set.
However, the Flashes rallied to win the next three sets, despite heavy competition from the Eagles. First Sawyer won 25-21 in the second set, and then closed the match with 25-23 wins in both the third and fourth sets.

The Eagles defense was superb in the match, but they were unable to put the ball away. Senior Becca Christenson had 31 digs, while sophomore Lauren Mach had a team-best nine blocks and also had seven kills.

Mara Roteliuk had an impressive 15 blocks to lead the Flashes to the victory and allowed them to continue on for a spot in the Region 6 tournament.
Newburg-Westhope concludes the season with a 7-21 record overall. They were 3-7 against district opponents.

The Eagles will lose five seniors for the 2013 season, including top hitters Hadlee Schell, Bailey Tofteland and Jade Teske, libero Becca Christensen and Ashley Ryan.

Returning for the Eagles will be starting hitters Lauren Mach and Paige Stratton, as well as setter Molly Lodoen.