Sports
Stars win pair of district matches, finish second at tournament
Tyler Ohmann
10/01/2013
It was a strong week for the Bottineau Stars volleyball team as they won all but one match this past week.
The week began on Tuesday with a sweep of Newburg-Westhope. The Stars then went on to cruise past Drake-Anamoose in a homecoming game on Thursday.
Bottineau remained unblemished all the way until late on Saturday as they won their first five matches at the Devils Lake Tournament.
The streak stopped at seven though as the Stars fell to Rolla in the championship game of the tournament. It was the second runner-up finish for the Stars this season in tournaments.
In Thursday’s win over Drake-Anamoose, the Stars came out strong and finished a sweep for their second District 11 win of the season.
The Stars cruised past the Raiders 25-11 in set one, 25-16 in set two and closed out the win with a 25-13 set three victory.
Senior setter Bailey Neubauer, who was honored for her 1,000 career assist before the game, had 21 assists, three aces and a team-best four digs.
Fellow seniors Karlee McCloud (four ace serves) and Danielle McDonald (10 kills) also played well. Juniors Stephanie Brenden (seven kills, one block) and Kennedy Olson (five kills, one block) also performed well in the win.
“The girls came out with a lot of energy and swept the Lady Raiders,” stated Stars head coach Steve Dunrud.
Bottineau kept their win streak rolling at the Devils Lake Tournament last Saturday.
In pool play the Stars got strong wins over Minto (25-14, 25-18) and Grafton (25-8, 25-19) to kick off their day. McCloud tallied six aces in the two matches.
They continued the winning ways with a split against Rolette-Wolford, but had more points to earn a two-point win.
The Comets and Stars were pit against each other again in the quarterfinals of the tournament portion. This time the Stars swept the Comets with a pair of 25-21 wins.
Brenden had a team-best 16 kills in the pair of wins over the Comets.
In the semifinals the Stars were matched up against Drayton-Valley Edinburg.
Bottineau held on to slim leads in both sets to defeat the Titans 25-22 and 25-20 to advance to the title game against the Bulldogs of Rolla.
Courtney Gallagher came out strong in the semifinal win with a team-best seven kills.
The Stars and Bulldogs faced off in the finale and Bottineau got off to a good start with a 25-21 win in set one.
Rolla rallied back and took set two 25-17, which forced a decisive third set.
Bottineau could never get the momentum back and the Bulldogs went on to win 15-10 in the final set.
“The girls had a very successful day and I’m proud of their efforts as we continue work to become better players and a better team,” Dunrud stated. “We are seeing improvement in so many areas and still we can see that we have some work to do in our coverage whether it be covering our hitters or our blockers.”
He did still see plenty of room for improvement as well though.“We still need to cut down on our unforced errors,” Dunrud stated. “We have to remember that each play is a new play and that we have to learn from our mistakes but we must not dwell on them.”
Leaders for the Stars throughout the tournament were Neubauer (105 assists), McCloud (14 ace serves), Brenden (40 kills, 11 blocks), Rachael Fix (43 digs) and McDonald (38 kills, 32 digs and 10 ace serves).
The week, which included the seven match win streak, improve Bottineau to 13-5 overall on the season. They are also undefeated with a 2-0 record in district play.
The Stars have two more district matches on the horizon as they play in Dunseith tonight and travel to Towner to take on Towner-Granville-Upham on Thursday.
Notes:
Season leaders for Bottineau include: Neubauer (366 assists), McDonald (142 kills), Fix (169 digs, 97 percent on serves), Brenden (37 blocks) and McCloud (41 ace serves).