Muskies lose three of four to open season

It wasn’t a good start to the NorWOSSA season for the four Muskie court teams here yesterday afternoon against the Kenora Broncos.
Only the junior girls’ volleyball team was able to earn a victory—and even that was by the slimmest of margins.
After losing the first two sets to Kenora (20-25, 25-27), the black-and-gold stormed back with three-straight wins (25-11, 25-17, and 15-6) to steal the best-of-five match.
“[The] first couple of games were shaky to say the least. Our serving was off, our passing was off, our technical was bad,” said Muskie head coach Duane Roen.
“But they turned it around,” he added. “They started getting some serves in and the game starts turning around once you start getting serves.”
In senior girls’ action, the Muskies lost in five sets to the visiting Broncos after grabbing a 2-1 lead.
Fort High lost the opening game 25-23, but rallied to take the next two by scores of 25-19 and 25-14. But Kenora refused to play dead and came back to win the match with 25-22 and 15-9 victories.
“The girls are pretty upset over it right now,” said head coach Char Bliss. “We lost those games with our mistakes.
“In a game, anything can happen and it’s being able to be smart and make adjustments,” she added.
On the basketball side, the Muskie junior boys fell 38-32 to the visiting Broncos even though they had led 20-14 at halftime.
Boyd Badiuk led the black-and-gold with eight points. Morgan Anderson and Jordan York each added six while Scott Gurski chipped in four.
Finally, the senior boys’ basketball game turned out to be the best of the afternoon. The lead changed hands numerous times before the Muskies wound up on the short end of a 44-43 score in a spirited affair.
“We could’ve beat these guys. I know we could’ve,” said Anwar Cheblaoui, who was the top scorer with 19 points.
“Everything went as well as could be for the amount of time we practised,” noted co-coach Al McManaman. “Everybody got some good court time. I saw a lot of good things.
“We have a lot to work on still, but I think that it went very well for our first game.”
Thomas Edwards netted six points while Mark Buist added five.
The Muskies return to action next Thursday (Dec. 16) in Dryden, which will be the last NorWOSSA play until the new year.