Sports

Eagles upset by Panthers, Flashes at district tournament

By Bottineau Courant Staff

11/05/2013

An opening-round loss to Rugby and a four-set struggle for a loss against Sawyer ended the Newburg-Westhope (NW) season prematurely last Thursday and Friday in the District 11 Tournament in Towner.

The fourth seeded Eagles were upset in both rounds, as the Panthers took them down 3-0 last Thursday, and the Flashes won 3-1 last Friday in a tight match.

The Eagles never really got anything going on Thursday against Rugby as they fell in straight sets to the Panthers, whom they defeated in a five-set thriller in Newburg during the regular season.

In the postseason match-up last Thursday, however, it was all Panthers. They used early leads to garner 25-15 wins in the first two sets. In set three the Eagles hung with them until late in the game, when the Panthers shut the door 25-19 to advance on in the winners bracket.

ReeAnn Christianson led the Panthers with five kills and two blocks.

NW was led by juniors Molly Lodoen (15 assists, three blocks) and Lauren Mach (five kills five blocks).

On Friday the Eagles performed better against the eighth-seeded Flashes.

A tight game one went to the Flashes 25-22, but the Eagles bounced back in the second set with a 28-26 victory.

Using the momentum the Eagles played well in the third set, but the Flashes rallied and snuck out a 25-23 victory to go up 2-1.

Sawyer carried that win into set four and upset the Eagles with a 25-14 victory to clinch the match and move on to Monday’s loser-out game against Towner-Granville-Upham.

Kyler Roteliuck was the hero for the Flashes as she slammed home a game-high 12 kills and also had 10 blocks. McKenzi Faul added five aces, 19 assists and 19 digs in the win.

For the Eagles they were led by Lodoen again, who had 26 assists, 19 digs and four blocks. Mach added nine blocks, while Maddy Lodoen had 22 digs and seven kills.

The pair of upsets stopped the Eagles in their most promising look at advancing to the Region 6 Tournament in several years.

NW also hosted a pair of home games earlier in the week to close down their regular season schedule.

The Eagles hosted Berthold on Monday, and played a tight match with the Bombers.

However, Berthold would prevail with a 3-1 victory.

Both teams traded blows in the opening set, but the Bombers got the momentum late and edged the Eagles for a 28-26 win.

NW rallied in the second set and won 25-21, but Berthold took over from there to win 25-15 in set three and 25-19 in the final set to earn the victory.

Jerica Schwanz had 26 assists, 14 digs and four aces in the win for the Bombers.

The Eagles were led by senior Ashlyn Huber, who had 14 digs and three ace serves. Mach added nine kills and five blocks, while Molly Lodoen had 21 assists and 13 digs.

The regular season came to an end for the Eagles with a 3-0 sweep loss to Rolette-Wolford (RW) last Tuesday in Newburg.

Despite three tight sets, the Comets were able to pull through with victories against the stingy Eagles. The Comets book-ended their win with 25-19 wins in sets one and three. The Eagles played them tightly in the second set, but RW held them off in a 25-23 win.

Lexy Whittmayer had 17 kills and 15 digs to lead the Comets.
NW was led by Mach, who had 11 kills, 10 digs and four blocks.
All in all the Eagles lost all four matches they played last week and their final record on the season was 9-19.