Powder River Examiner -

The Broadus Varsity Girls Volleyball season started out early on Saturday. Early as in 4:30 AM, to be precise, as the team loaded the buses in the wee hours of the morning for the long trip to the Fairview Tournament.

The tournament featured two game pool play, with the winner in total points determining advancement.

The young Broadus team – consisting of eight freshmen, one sophomore, one junior, two seniors, and eight 8th graders, pulled into Fairview with a tough challenge ahead. The first test for the team came against Wibaux.

Wibaux has been a consistently talented team, and showed they are still the team to beat, as the Lady Longhorns came out strong, beating Broadus 25-6 and 25-10.

“We couldn’t find our rhythm against Wibaux,” Broadus Head Coach Gordon Archer said of the loss. By the time we started to figure things out, it was too late.”

Broadus next faced another tough team – Ekalaka. “We played much better against Ekalaka,” Archer said.

Broadus lost both games, going 25-20 and 25-19, but Archer said his team was much more competitive than against Wibaux, showing teamwork and better play.

The third match of the day was against Mon-Dak. “We watched earlier in the day as Mon-Dak went head-to-head with Wibaux, which they beat in one game. They are a really nice team, Archer analyzed Mon-Dak. “Watching them compete may have gotten into our heads, as we lost the first game 25-9. In the second game, the light seemed to come on for us, and we competed well. We had opportunities to win until the very end.”

Broadus would lose the second game in a close contest, 25-22.

“We showed what we could do in that second game, and played really well together there against Mon-Dak,” Coach Archer beamed as he spoke of the Lady Hawk performance.

The top teams from each pool then went into a tournament to determine the winner, while the bottom teams played in a single elimination match.

Broadus, having lost two matches, was in this single elimination match against Jordan. Last season Jordan and Broadus went back and forth in competitive play, and the first game of this season between the two teams was similar. Jordan won the first game 25-22, but Archer said if Broadus had played like they had against Mon-Dak, the score would’ve been reversed. After that, Jordan seemed to let the air out of the Lady Hawks’ tires, winning the second game easily, 25-11.

“This first tournament didn’t end up exactly how we wanted, but it’s what we got,” Archer said. “We did show that if we play to the level we are capable of, and if we stay consistent, we can do good things. Now we know where we need to be, we just need to work hard to get there.”

Broadus will face Jordan again this Friday, as the Lady Hawks travel to Garfield County for their first regular season conference match. Then on Saturday, Broadus will host Circle, for the first home match of the season. Both matches will feature JV and JH games as well as Varsity.

Action at home will begin at 2 PM for the Junior High matches, and 4 PM for High School matches.

Other school sports activities this weekend include a JH and HS football game at Forsyth, on Friday evening (beginning at 4:15 PM for JH, 7 PM for HS), and a Cross Country competition at Hardin, also on Friday.