Sports

Bottineau season ends in opening round of region tournament

By Bottineau Courant Staff

11/12/2013

The season came to a close for the Bottineau Stars last night as they were upset 3-1 by the fourth seed out of District 12, Des Lacs-Burlington (DLB).

The Lakers surged from behind to knock the Stars out of the Region 6 Tournament after the Stars took game one 25-21.

DLB took charge from there and won the second set 25-20. The Stars played right with the Lakers in the third set, but fell 25-21.
The Lakers took as much as a 14-7 lead in the fourth set, and held on after a long Stars rally to earn a 25-19 win to close out the match.
Megan DeGree was strong in the front court for the Lakers as she tallied a match-high 18 kills. Brittany DeGree added 11 kills to help lead the DLB charge.

Bottineau was led by a valiant effort from senior Courtney Gallagher, who had her best match of the season with 14 kills. Fellow senior Danielle McDonald added 10 kills, and junior Stephanie Brenden had nine kills in the losing effort.

Bottineau’s final season record was 26-8, and they won 68 sets and dropped only 27.

The Stars came into the Region 6 Tournament as the top seed out of District 11. They swept Sawyer, slipped past Rugby 3-2 and then swept Velva 3-0 to win the District title last Monday in Towner.

The Stars had reached the Region 6 finals in each of the past three seasons, falling to Kenmare in 2010 and 2011 and losing to Our Redeemers last year.

Bottineau had five seniors this season, who all started. McDonald, Gallagher, setter Bailey Neubauer, libero Rachael Fix and Karlee McCloud will all graduate.

The Stars will however return talented hitters in juniors Stephanie Brenden and Kennedy Olson. Also returning with some experience will be sophomores Shelby Grenier, Skyler Patterson and Kaytlyn Aufforth.