The U18 girls’ Whiskey Jacks volleyball club finished off their successful season with a second place finish at the Tier 2 Manitoba Provincial Championships in Killarney, MB over the weekend of May 1.
Coach Todd Desautels says it was a great season for the girls in many aspects.
“It was a great season for the U18 girls as it was a great chance for some of our younger 15 and 16-year-olds to spend some time playing with the 17 and 18-year-olds as they rotated in the lineup and various tournaments.”
The girls placed first in their round robin pool with two solid performances, beating out Southwest MB 25-13, 25-12 and Yellowhead Blaze of central-western Manitoba 25-19,25-11.
The team took a by to the semi-finals, defeating the  Superior North?Volleyball Club from Thunder Bay 25-19, 25-20.
The girls met up with the Big Bear Volleyball Club of Elton, MB, where they suffered their first loss of the tournament 21-25, 18-25 for the silver medal.
Melissa Felske and Meryl Smith were named to teh all-star team for Manitoba.
The girls also gained some playing time in the Portage La Prairie tournament on April 10, where they suffered a quarter-final loss in two straight sets, 23-25, 23-25 to Cloquet.
The team also traveled to Duluth on April 18 for their last tournament before provincials.
The girls lost in the quarter-finals in three sets to the Lakers Volleyball Club from Kenora after splitting the round robin sets with the Superior North Volleyball Club and the Yellowhead Blaze and earned a straight sets win against Southwest.

The girls side of the ‘AA’ NorWOSSA division is looking pretty even all around as the Eagles’ girls soccer team finished the season opener with two ties.
The girls faced off against the Fort Frances Muskies in Fort Frances on May 5, earning a shut out but were shut down by the Muskies in the 0-0 tie.
Coach Carlos Raposo says it wasn’t the outcome they were looking for but the girls put in a great effort.
“With our inexperience, we made a couple of errors that we hope to correct this week  but overall, it was good.”
The girls didn’t fair much better in their afternoon game against the Beaver Brae Broncos, finishing in another tie, this time one goal a piece.
Midfielder, Halle Lobreau, opened the scoring in the first half with a high shot to the top left corner, over the hands of the Muskie keeper.
The girls protected their end as much as they could but the Broncos tied the game at one with just minutes remaining in the second half.
Raposo says that the girls have a lot to work on but with the season being so short, it’s hard to develop  well in such a short period of time.
“We don’t coach long enough to show all the stuff. Our season is so short that we’re just scraping the surface of the basics of soccer.”
Raposo adds that committing to practice and watching soccer on t.v. or watching the senior leagues will help brinßg up their level in the next few weeks.
“I see some really good soccer coming from them. They’re really young and they’ve got a bit of concept of what the game is all about. It’s just a matter of pushing it to the next level.”
The girls are back on the field at home in Dryden on May 12 against the Muskies and the Broncos, looking to improve their record.
Results were unavailable at press time. Check www.drydenobserver.ca for updates and next week’s print edition of The Dryden Observer for full results and photos.

The Eagles’ boys soccer team opened the 2010 season with two losses in Fort Frances on May 5.
The team took on the Fort Frances Muskies in their first match of the year, falling 2-1.
Coach Connor Doherty says a big key to their success will be finishing up front.
“We need to move more balls into the penalty area, more though balls and crosses to create more chances for the strikers.”
Daniel Arndt earned the lone goal for the Eagles but a penalty shot awarded to the Muskies made it a 2-1 game.
The boys hit the field again for their second match of the season against the Beaver Brae Broncos, where they fell 3-1.
Grant Valiquette put the Eagles on the score board but it wasn’t enough to keep the Broncos at bay as they scored three times for the win.
Doherty says although the team lost, the score doesn’t reflect the flow of the game.
“We are not a 1-5 team. Our record is not indicative of how we play. We’ve been the best team in every game but we just didn’t get the result we wanted.”
The team also participated in a high school tournament in Kenora over the weekend, earning a win and three losses.
Doherty adds that again, the Eagles dominated the play but was unable to finish and as a result, didn’t see the scores they wanted to.
The boys are back in action in Dryden on May 12 against the Muskies and the Broncos for round two of the NorWOSSA season.
Results of the May 12 matches were unavailable at press time. Check www.drydenobserver.ca for updates and next week’s print edition of The Dryden Observer for full details and photos.

It wasn’t exactly the playoff ending the Dryden Ice Dogs were hoping for as they dropped game five to the Fort William North Stars in the best-of-seven Bill Salonen Cup final.
Clint Mylymok, head coach of the Ice Dogs, says after a very successful first round in the playoffs, a second place finish in five games was not at all what the team expected but some key factors were missing in those final games.
“Usually you look at three things. You look at goaltending, special teams and your top scorers. You usually need two out of three of those to have success, especially in a championship-type setting and we didn’t have all three.”
The team came into the final playoff round after going undefeated in the first round robin playoff round against the Sioux Lookout Flyers and the North Stars and beating out the Fort Frances Lakers in the semi-finals in six tough games.
Looking to repeat round one, the Ice Dogs missed the mark, falling 5-1 in Thunder Bay before tying the series in game two with a 2-1 decision.
The series came to the Dryden Memorial Arena April 3 and 4, where the Ice Dogs couldn’t hold on, losing 5-1 and 4-1 respectively.
The series returned to Thunder Bay where the North Stars finished the series and took home the Bill Salonen Cup with an 8-1 win over the Ice Dogs.
Mylymok says a big part of their loss was taking not taking shooting opportunities when they came up and always looking for that extra pass.
“You got to put pucks on net in the playoffs, get sticks on it on rebounds, deflections. You take a beating to score a goal and you got to make those types of sacrifices.
In our last two games against Fort Frances, all we did was put pucks to the net. We flooded players to the net, won faceoffs, got pucks to the net, battled for pucks. I didn’t see that same type of game from our forwards.”
On the positive side, talk in the stands kept coming back to local player Kevin Raine, who stepped in during the semi-finals to help out the defensive line.
At 16 years old, Raine delivered some huge hits for the team, making the trip towards the Ice Dogs net a huge challenge.
“He was a huge presence, especially in the series against Fort Frances. Players like Katapaytuk and Jourdain who are 6’ 2”, 220-230 lbs and they were getting through our guys to easy. The more [Raine] played, the more he got his timing down. He was a huge presence and I thought, to be honest, he was the turning point in that series.”
Mylymok says that Raine will have options in the hockey world in the next few years and he’ll have some big decisions to make in the future.
The playoffs may not have been as successful as the team expected but the season was far from a disappointment.
With only nine losses in the regular season, the team enjoyed a comfortable lead over most teams straight through to playoffs, something the boys should be proud of.

It was a great day at the Dryden High School yesterday as the Junior boys basketball team earned their first win of the season against the Beaver Brae Broncos.

The boys lead the way from the beginning, leading 13-11 at the half, 29-19 after the third.

The Broncos tied it up at 33 before heading into overtime where the Eagles charged forward with eight points to take the game 41-35.

In other court sport action, the Senior boys lost to the Broncos in a 41-19 decision.

The Junior girls beat the Broncos in four sets, 25-19, 24-26, 25-19, 25-9.

The Senior girls beat the Broncos in three straight, 25-12, 25-12, 25-14.

All four teams are in Fort Frances tomorrow against the Muskies. See results at a later date.