ROCKFORD—For the second straight year, the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear volleyball squad pulled off an upset in the opening round of regionals, this time on Monday, Oct. 21, with a win over the Rockford Warriors in four sets.

The home team took the opening game by the score of 12-25 before the black-and-gold tied the match up at 1-1 with a 25-15 victory in game number two.

STORM LAKE—West Bend-Mallard went on the road in Twin Lakes Conference volleyball action on Tuesday, Oct. 15 against Storm Lake St. Mary’s and returned home with a match victory in three straight sets.

The purple-and-gold took the opening game with a 25-11 win before cruising to a 25-5 victory in game number two and ended the match with a 25-17 win in the third game.

MASON CITY—Mason City Newman ended the North Union Warriors’ 2024 volleyball season as the Knights topped the green-black-and-silver in three straight sets in the Class 1A regional opener played on Monday, Oct. 21.

The home team won the opening game by the score of 25-14 before taking game number two by the count of 25-18 and ended the match with a 25-13 victory in the third set.

WEST BEND—West Bend-Mallard opened Class 1A regional volleyball tournament play on Monday, Oct. 21 at home with a win over the Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire Titans in three straight sets.

The purple-and-gold were dominant all evening long as they won the opening game by the score of 25-12 before taking the second set by the count of 25-10 and ended the match with a 25-14 victory in game number three.

ARMSTRONG—In the final match of their 2024 regular season schedule, the North Union Warriors’ volleyball squad fell to the Spencer Tigers in three straight sets on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

The visitors won a very tight opening game by the final score of 26-24 before taking game number two 25-13 and ended the non-conference match with a 25-21 victory in the third game.

ALGONA—Algona played host to five other volleyball squads in the annual Algona Invitational played on Saturday, Oct. 19 as the red-and-black went 2-3 during the day.

The Bulldogs earned wins over Forest City by the scores of 21-18, 16-21 and 15-6 and the Spencer Tigers by the count of 21-8 and 21-13.

Algona fell to Emmetsburg 21-8 and 22-20, Lake Mills by the score of 21-12 and 23-21 and to the St. Edmond Gaels by the scores of 9-21, 21-10 and 4-15.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ALGONA—Trailing by four points at intermission, No. 2 rated Bishop Garrigan outscored No.10 Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire 32-14 in the final 24 minutes to claim the District No. 2 title. The Golden Bears took a 52-38 win in the high scoring game between a pair of undefeated teams.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

NORTHWOOD—West Bend-Mallard erupted for 22 first quarter points and tacked on 20 more in the second period enroute to a 42-6 eight-man District No. 2 victory on Friday, Oct. 11 over the Northwood-Kensett Vikings.

The purple-and-gold won their third straight game to improve to 4-3 overall and are now 3-2 in district play as they finish the regular season at home Friday night against the Rockford Warriors.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

ARMSTRONG—For the second straight week after starting the season with five losses, the North Union Warrior football team found the winner’s circle.

The green-black-and-silver tallied 15 points in the final 12 minutes to force overtime and then outscored Mason City 7-6 in the extra time to pull out an exciting 29-28 district win on Friday, Oct. 11.

CLARION—Algona evened their North Central Conference volleyball match record at 3-3 on the year with a league victory in three straight sets on Thursday, Oct. 10 over the Clarion-Goldfield/Dows Cowgirls.

The red-and-black improved their record to 11-10 in conference games played as they won the match by the scores of 25-16, 25-14 and 25-12.

By Greg Grabianowski, Sports Editor

HUMBOLDT—Despite losing three-time all-stater Alex Manske early in the third quarter, top-ranked Algona continued to battle hard and narrowly dropped a 21-20 contest to second-ranked Humboldt on Friday, Oct. 11.

EAGLE GROVE—Bishop Garrigan’s Julia Swift finished in second place overall with her clocking of 20:12.93 to highlight the performances of a pair of area girls’ cross-country squads at the annual Dick Bell Invitational held on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

She was the only runner for the black-and-gold as they did not have a team score while the Algona Bulldogs ended up in fourth place in the team standings of 14 squads with a team score of 137 points.

LAKE CITY—Junior Tyra Schupbach was the runner-up at the Brian Knapp Invitational held on Tuesday, Oct. 8 to highlight the performances of the West Bend-Mallard boys and girls cross-country squads.

Schupbach came across the finish line with her clocking of 18:48.25 to help lead the purple-and-gold to end up fifth in the team standings with 104 points in the 12-team field.

ALGONA—Bishop Garrigan concluded Top of Iowa Conference volleyball on the right foot with a league victory on Tuesday, Oct. 8 over the West Hancock E-Gals in three straight sets.

The black-and-gold concluded league play with a mark of 2-6 to end in a seventh place tie with Eagle Grove and went 10-20 in games played in those eight conference matches.

FOREST CITY—Julia Swift of Bishop Garrigan was third overall to highlight the performances of a pair of area girls cross-country squads at the Forest City Invitational held at the Bear Creek Golf Course on Monday, Oct. 14.

Swift crossed the finish line in 20:32.5 as she was the only runner for the Golden Bears. North Union also competed as the green-black-and-silver had four runners compete.