Lady Bulldogs Finish Second in Bagley Tournament

Sept 27

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Lady Bulldogs traveled to Bagley on Saturday to take part in the Bagley Invitational. Play some of their best volleyball of the season, the Bulldogs finished second in the nine team tournament.

The Bulldogs opened up pool play on Saturday morning with a two set winner over Clearbrook-Gonvick. After the win against the Bears, the Bulldogs faced off against the Pirates of Crookston and once again it was a two game Carlton win.

The kids played so well this weekend,” head coach Barb Soukkala told Northland Sports Online. “Defensively we played very well. We passed the ball and we had some outstanding kills,” Soukkala added.

Going 2-0 in pool play advanced the Bulldogs to the championship pool. They then faced East Grand Forks in the first match of this pool. The Bulldogs success would continue as they downed the Green Wave by a score of 2-0. Carlton then faced the Warroad Warriors in what would be the championship match where the Bulldogs fell to the Warriors by a score of 2-0.

Coach Soukkala told Northland Sports Online that Tayler Carpenter played some of the best volleyball of the season for the Bulldogs. “She was very dominant at the net,” Soukkala stated. “McKenzie Belanger played extremely well in the back row,” she had a lot of digs and is playing so well.”

Carlton, going 3-1 in the tournament, improved their overall record to 9-7 on the season. The Bulldogs will be in action Tuesday night when they travel to Cromwell to face to Cardinals in a Polar League matchup.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com