Lady Huskies claim conference championship

The Lady Huskies finished their regular season with an overall 21-8 record and a 7-1 conference record and the Conference Champion title. Burlington’s JV team went undefeated and the C team only lost once.

Burlington faced Rocky on Tuesday and after losing the previous game in five games, they were looking forward to the match. “Rocky made us work for it, beating us the first set 25-21,” said Coach Erin Bassett.

The Lady Huskies won the second set 25-16 and then lost the third set 23-25. “Our team was working hard, but we never really found our rhythm. We were down in the fourth set 23-18 when determination took over. We won that rally and Eve McNulty went to the serving line to serve the next four points to tie it at 23. We continued to battle rally point after rally point, through four rotations, until we capped the win at 31-29. It took effort and focus from everyone on the court and a few that came in off the bench. It was a great team effort. I was so proud of the determination and grit from the Lady Huskies. We breezed through the fifth set and enjoyed the win!”

Paxton Philpott led the team with 19 kills, 18 digs, two aces and two assisted blocks. Sarah McNiven had 17 kills, two solo blocks and three assisted blocks. Naomi McNiven had 10 kills, 11 digs, two assisted blocks. Hailee Winterholler had eight kills and one assisted block. Dalley Bassett had four kills, four digs, one assisted block and was 100% from the serving line. Adison Haslam had one kill, 10 digs and 37 assists. Orabella Heaton added eight digs and three assists. Kate Preator had one dig and 100% serving. McNulty had 11 digs and 100% serving. Jamie Taylor had 100% serving and three assists and Madison Aagard had one assisted block.

The game against St. Stephens was a quick one with Burlington winning all three 25-1, 25-2 and 25-12. The six seniors were recognized and played the first set together. “It was fun to have them all on the court at the same time, even if they had to play a little out of their normal positions,” said Bassett. “These girls have carried a lot of the load since they were sophomores. They have grown so much and their skills have improved greatly but they remain the same competitive group.” 

Burlington ended the week and season with an important rematch with Dubois to determine conference championship and the number one seed for regionals. The first game against Dubois was a loss for the Huskies in four games, so they once again were looking for a completely different outcome. “Dubois always does a great job at finding ways to return the ball. We dropped the first set 22-25. The girls’ goal was to put the game away in three so it was a little bit of a setback. I clearly had nothing to worry about, they may have lost that little battle but they were there for the war. They never backed down for the remainder of the game. Even in moments we had a comfortable lead, they hustled, they attacked and they worked tougher as a team.”

Philpott once again led the team with 16 kills, three aces and 23 digs. N. McNiven added 15 kills, 100% serves and 17 digs. Winterholler had 13 kills, one ace and three digs. S. McNiven had nine kills. McNulty had one kill, 100 serving with an ace and 16 digs. Haslam added one kill and eight digs. Bassett added 12 digs and Heaton added seven digs.

The Lady Huskies head to regionals in Lander this week and will face Farson-Eden on Friday at 11:30 a.m. in the Field House. “We have a tough region so we always know we are going down to play some competitive games. It came down to a tiebreaker for the Southwest Conference as well so there is no easy path to the championship game. We are going to go in swinging and see where the dust settles at the end of day one,” said Bassett.