New Life volleyball: Eagles’ season ends in section semifinals

The New Life Academy volleyball team’s came to an end last week.

The fourth-seeded Eagles’ year ended with a 3-0 loss to top-seeded Southwest Christian School in the Section 4A semifinals on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at Heritage Christian Academy.

New Life Academy, which finished 17-12 on the year, fell 25-13, 25-7, 25-10 in the section semifinal.

Prior to the season-ending loss, New Life Academy defeated fifth-seeded Lester Prairie 3-1 (25-12, 26-24, 17-25, 25-21) on Friday, Oct. 28, in the quarterfinals after taking down 13th-seeded Maranatha Christian Academy 3-1 (25-15, 25-12, 12-25, 25-8) on Wednesday, Oct. 26, in the opening round. Both matches were held at New Life Academy.

Because of their fourth seed, the Eagles enjoyed home court advantage and used it to their full advantage both nights.

“I have to hand to hand it to our great crowds — we get most of our football team out to support us, and our girls respond well with strong play,” New Life head coach Wally Bomgren said. “We usually play in front of a full gym, which makes it pretty fun.”

NLA seniors Ally Lamb and Claire Hawkins had a couple great nights spiking the volleyball for the Eagles. Against Maranatha, Lamb had 12 kills with just two errors. And against Lester Prairie, a team NLA lost to a week prior, Hawkins had 13 kills and only one error. Lauren Ruhr dished out 35 assists in the two matches as well.

While the youthful NLA team had numerous underclassmen fill key roles, the team must now say good-bye to seven seniors who started the season with the team and were important contributors — Lamb, Hawkins, Reagan Baar, Macayla Stone, Lauren Ruhr, Renee Barrett and Hannah Tongen.

Tags: sports, volleyball, prep, updates