Sports
Stars fall to Rolla, eye district tournament
Tyler Ohmann
10/29/2013
The Bottineau Stars dropped just their fourth non-tournament match and their seventh match overall this past week as they were swept by the Rolla Lady Bulldogs in Rolla.
It was the second time the Stars faced the Lady Bulldogs this season. Rolla got the better of the Stars in a tie-breaking third set in the Devils Lake Invitational title game on Sept. 28.
Rolla came out strong in the first game and earned a 25-16 victory. Bottineau made things competitive in the second set and forced the match into extra points, but the Bulldogs again came away victorious with a 27-25 win.
After that Rolla closed out the sweep with a 25-15 win in set three.
“The Lady Bulldogs came out firing on all cylinders in games one and three,” stated Stars head coach Steve Dunrud. “Game two was a very competitive back and forth game which went into extra points to determine a winner.”
Mary Jo Guilbert had 12 kills, seven aces and five blocks to help lead the Bulldogs to the win.
Junior Stephanie Brenden led the Stars with six kills and two blocks, while senior Rachael Fix had 11 digs and two aces in the losing effort.
“We didn’t pass the ball very well throughout the match and thus couldn’t get our offense on track,” Dunrud stated. “I think that the girls were too fired up to begin the match (our warmup was awesome to watch) so hopefully a lesson was learned in preparation for our next big match.”
The Stars dropped to 22-7 overall on the season. They played their final regular season match at home last night against Langdon. It was senior night to honor five seniors: Fix, Danielle McDonald, Courtney Gallagher, Bailey Neubauer and Karlee McCloud.
The Stars are the top seed in the upcoming District 11 Tournament, which begins on Thursday in Towner. They will play their first round match against eighth-seeded Sawyer. 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.