Eagles to travel to Ortonville to open section tournament

Photos by Cheri Kopveiler
Gabi Vaden picks up a dig during last week’s game against Wadena-Deer Creek. She picked up 11 digs in the loss to break the 1,000 career dig mark.

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

New York Mills senior Gabi Vaden etched her name in the Eagle history books on Tuesday night as the libero picked up her 1,000th career dig in a 3-0 loss to Wadena-Deer Creek to wrap up Park Region Conference action. Vaden was a longtime libero for the Eagles, before switching to an all-around player for a majority of her senior season. She transitioned back to libero a few weeks ago and once again found herself as a defensive force in the back row for the Eagles. 

Aubree Salo returns a serve during last week’s game against Wadena-Deer Creek.

The career milestone came right before the Eagles traveled to Underwood on Thursday for the annual Underwood Tournament. The Eagles dropped all four matches at the Underwood Tournament by scores of 2-0 against Wheaton/Herman-Norcross, Verndale, Roseau and Pelican Rapids. 

With the losses the Eagles fall to 4-23 on the season and will look to snap a 16 game losing streak when they travel to Ortonville on Monday night.
Results from the match were not available at the time of press. 

In a bit of a new-look Section 6A, all of the teams were seeded 1-21 and there will not be a sub section tournament this year. 

NY Mills received the 18th seed and traveled to 15th seeded Ortonville (7-13 on the season) on Monday night with the winner taking on second seeded Parkers Prairie (23-4 on the season) on Wednesday night in Parkers Prairie. The Section 6A tournament continues on Friday night with the winner of Wednesday’s contest taking on either seventh seeded Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley or 10th seeded Battle Lake. 

Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa was the top seed in the section, while Breckenridge was third, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy was fourth, Henning was fifth and West Central Area is sixth. 

Photos by Cheri Kopveiler
Gabi Vaden celebrates with her teammates after she secured her 1,000th career dig last week.

Tuesday

Gabi Vaden picked up 11 digs to eclipse the 1,000 career dig milestone and Annika Dunrud led the way with seven kills as the NY Mills Eagles fell to Wadena-Deer Creek by a score of 3-0 on Tuesday night. 

Eliyana Ruther sends a spike over the net during last week’s game against the Wolverines.

After falling in the first game by a score of 25-13, the Eagles were unable to overtake the eventual conference champion Wolverines in the second game as they fell into a 2-0 hole by a score of 25-10. In the third and final game WDC was able to come away with a 25-14 win to complete the three game sweep.

In addition to the duo of Vaden and Dunrud, Chloe Costin led the Eagles with seven assists and finished with seven digs in the loss. Alivia Preuss also finished with two kills on the night. 

New York Mills vs. Wadena-Deer Creek

SERVING: Annika Dunrud 4-4 (1 ace), Gabi Vaden 7-8 (2 ace), Aubree Salo 6-6, Abigail Berndt 4-4, Autumn Salo 5-5, Chloe Costin 4-4, Julie Seim 7-7 (1 ace)

KILLS: Annika Dunrud 7, Eliyana Ruther 1, Gabi Vaden 1, Sawyer Anderson 1, Alivia Preuss 2, Alise Schornack 1

BLOCKS: 

ASSISTS: Chloe Costin 7, Aria VanOrsdel 1, Julie Seim 4

DIGS: Annika Dunrud 4, Esne Lien 2, Eliyana Ruther 3, Gabi Vaden 11, Aubree Salo 1, Abigail Berndt 2, Chloe Costin 7, Alivia Preuss 2, Alise Schornack 1, Aria VanOrsdel 1, Julie Seim 2

Thursday

NY Mills may have dropped all four of their matches on Thursday, but several of the games came right down to the wire. 

The Eagles fell to eventual eighth seed in Section 6A Wheaton-Herman-Norcross 25-23, 25-20; Verndale 25-16, 25-15; Class AA Roseau 25-9, 27-25; and Pelican Rapids 25-14, 25-20 on the day.

Annika Dunrud and Ellyana Ruther led a balanced scoring attack as they both finished with 14 kills, while Chloe Costin and Alivia Preuss chipped in with eight and six kills apiece. Preuss also finished with a team-high four blocks. 

Julie Seim led the way with 25 assists and finished with 21 digs, while Costin finished with 18. Senior Gabi Vaden led the charge with 47 digs and four ace serves, while Abigail Berndt finished with 25 digs to go along with a team-high eight ace serves. 

New York Mills vs. Underwood

SERVING:

KILLS: Annika Dunrud 14, Eliyana Ruther 14, Gabi Vaden 3, Chloe Costin 8, Alivia Preuss 6, Alise Schornack 1, Aubree Salo 1, Sawyer Anderson 5

BLOCKS: Annika Dunrud 2, Eliyana Ruther 1, Chloe Costin 3, Alivia Preuss 4, Alise Schornack 2, Sawyer Anderson 2

ASSISTS: Annika Dunrud 1, Gabi Vaden 2, Chloe Costin 18, Alise Schornack 2, Julie Seim 25

DIGS: Annika Dunrud 17, Eliyana Ruther 10, Gabi Vaden 47, Chloe Costin 13, Alivia Preuss 1, Alise Schornack 9, Abigail Berndt 25, Julie Seim 21, Aubree Salo 3, Sawyer Anderson 3