Sports

Eagles win final district contest

By Bottineau Courant Staff

10/29/2013

The Newburg-Westhope (NW) Eagles were on both the right and wrong ends of match sweeps this past week.

The Eagles first swept District 11 rival Sawyer in Newburg last Tuesday to conclude their district regular season schedule. They finished that schedule with a 5-2 record, which puts them as the fourth seed in the upcoming district tournament.

On Thursday the Eagles then fell to the other side of the spectrum as they traveled to Mohall and were swept by the Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood (MLS) Mavericks 3-0.

First on Tuesday the Eagles closed out their district schedule with a sweep of the Sawyer Flashes, who dropped to 0-7 in district play with the loss.

Though all three matches were pretty competitive the Eagles were able to find the winning end in all. They won set one 25-18, but the match got closer as it went on. NW got 25-20 and 25-21 wins in set two and three respectively to finish off the Flashes.

Juniors Paige Stratton and Lauren Mach paced the Eagles offense with six kills a piece. Mach also added three blocks. Maddy Lodoen had a team-best 21 digs and added five kills and two blocks in the win.

On Thursday the Eagles faced a tough test in a strong MLS team on the road.

They were greeted with a big time start by the Mavericks who jumped to an early two-set lead with 25-8 wins in both of the first two sets.

NW was able to compete in the third set, but ultimately the Mavericks earned the sweep with a 25-20 set three victory.

Alex Mott had team-highs in blocks (six) and kills (five), while Shania Brackenbury dished out 12 assists and had five ace serves in the victory for MLS.

The Eagles were led by Stratton who had team-bests in kills (five), aces (five) and blocks (two). Molly Lodoen dished out a dozen assists and Maddy Lodoen had seven digs in the losing effort.
The split week pushes the Eagles overall record to 9-15 on the season, but the win over Sawyer has the Eagles clocked in as the fourth seed with a 5-2 District 11 record.

As the fourth seed the Eagles will face fifth-seeded Rugby in the first round of the district tournament held 25 minutes after game one, which starts at 3 p.m. on Thursday in Towner.

The tournament continues with second round and loser-out matches on Friday and the championship and region play-in games will be on Monday.

The four teams that advance will play in the Region 6 Tournament, which begins on Monday, Nov. 11 at the Minot Auditorium.