Four familiar stories were played out during the regular-season finale of the Muskies’ court teams yesterday at Fort High.
The junior hoopsters capped off a very successful campaign with a 29-26 victory over the visiting Dryden Eagles.
Having already clinched first place, Muskie head coach Dan Bird put a younger squad on the floor for the season-finale and they did not disappoint—pushing the team’s record to 6-2 with the win.
The Muskies pulled away in the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 12-4 thanks largely to the aggressive play of guard Kayla Windigo.
They then survived a late Dryden run in the fourth quarter en route to the victory.
Windigo was the high scorer for the black-and-gold with nine points.
The junior Muskies have a bye to the NorWOSSA final next Friday (Nov. 10) in Kenora, where they’ll face the winner of the semi-final match between Dryden and the host Broncos.
The Muskie senior girls’ basketball team, meanwhile, continued to struggle in their search for consistency at the offensive end.
The black-and-gold turned the ball over repeatedly yesterday in a 33-27 loss to the visiting Eagles to finish with a 2-6 record. Of particular concern was the team’s passing—the Muskies threw numerous passes out of bounds.
Forward Alyssa Holliday led the team with seven points, with Kristina Caul and Michelle Cournoyer each chipping in six.
The third-place Muskies will face either Kenora or Dryden in the NorWOSSA semi-final a week from today.
On the volleyball court, the senior Muskies continued to show promise but still could not pick up their first win of the season here yesterday against Dryden.
The black-and-gold lost a five-set heartbreaker by scores of 20-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23, and 11-15) to finish the regular season with an 0-8 mark.
Despite the loss, head coach Brian Love was pleased with the progress and feels his team could be a real sleeper in the NorWOSSA playoffs next Friday in Kenora.
And the junior boys also could not put together all the necessary aspects of their game to earn their first win of the season, falling in straight sets (25-21, 25-23, and 25-15) to a strong Eagles’ team.
Consistency continues to plague the junior spikers, who will play well for portions of a match but never long enough to earn a win.
The junior Muskies’ latest setback was caused largely by poor passing. The black-and-gold were never able to establish their offence as they often were left scrambling to recover an errant pass.
The squad will need to make major strides in practice this coming week if they are to upset either Kenora or Dryden in the NorWOSSA semi-final next Friday at Beaver Brae.