Mitch Calvert
The Muskie senior and junior boys’ volleyball teams both fell to 0-5 in NorWOSSA play after losing in straight sets to the visiting Dryden Eagles on Tuesday.
Junior coach Duane Roen said his team came out flat in the first set but stayed with the Eagles the rest of the way, losing the best-of-five match by scores of 25-6, 25-16, and 25-18.
“We are still working on our offensive strength this year and are slowly gaining ground in that respect,” Roen noted.
After playing in Kenora today, the squad then will head to a tournament in Dryden that begins tomorrow.
The senior boys, meanwhile, struggled to find their groove early in much the same fashion—dropping the first set 25-6 before losing the next two sets by closer scores of 25-18 and 25-16.
“Again, the second and third games were reasonable scores, but they only played intense volleyball periodically,” Muskie coach John Gibson wrote in an e-mail to the Times.
Unfortunately for Muskie fans, it was a similar story on the basketball court here Tuesday as both the senior and junior squads were swept by the visiting Eagles.
The senior girls struggled through three quarters, then a late spurt wasn’t enough in falling 26-23.
“The first half was an ugly half,” co-coach Ian Simpson said. “Turnovers were the big story, and our shots weren’t going in.
“We had opportunities but we missed a lot of shots, but I think it was a credit to the defensive pressure they were putting on us,” he added.
After a low-scoring first half that saw the Eagles up 8-6, the visitors cemented their lead in the third quarter thanks to a 9-2 run.
The Muskies (3-2) out-scored Dryden 15-9 over the final quarter, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit.
Jolene Stahn paced the Muskie attack with 10 points, all of which came in the fourth quarter.
“We’re going to have to do lots of drills and work on fundamentals of dribbling, passing, and catching,” Simpson stressed. “The best plays in the world don’t work if you don’t have the fundamentals.”
The senior squad has a tournament in Thunder Bay this weekend, which Simpson said will be a good test because the top three teams in the city will be there.
Finally, in junior girls’ basketball action Tuesday, the visiting Eagles exacted revenge for a loss a week ago with a convincing 31-17 win this time around.
“We didn’t practice much for a few days [over the Thanksgiving holiday], so hopefully that’s the reason we came out so flat,” co-coach Dan Bird said. “Dryden was sharp and we weren’t.”
The game had importance in the standings as both teams are battling for first place in NorWOSSA—and the first-round playoff bye that comes with it. The two teams are currently tied with identical 3-2 records.
“Dryden realized the importance of the game because now we’re tied [for first],” Bird noted.
The junior girls will host a tournament this weekend, which features a split squad against their two NorWOSSA rivals as well as St. Ignatius (Thunder Bay).
