Eastview girls' basketball ends season in a better place

The Eastview girls' basketball team was looking for an opportunity to play for the Class 4A state championship. It didn't happen.

The Lightning lost to South Suburban Conference foe Bloomington Kennedy in the semifinals. But that wasn't going to keep them from finishing better than the 2012 season.

Eastview regrouped to knock off Osseo 58-43 in the third-place game Saturday at Concordia University in St. Paul. It lost in the third-place game the previous year.

"Getting the team to bounce back and play with focus in the third-place game seemed like it might be a challenge," Eastview coach Melissa Guebert said. The Lightning defeated Rochester Mayo 54-40 in the quarterfinals before falling to Bloomington Kennedy 43-39.

"The girls came to practice on Friday with the goal of finishing third. It was important to them to finish better than the previous year."

Sophomore guard Madison Guebert, the coach's daughter, led all scorers with 22 points in the third-place game. She had 27 points in the quarterfinal victory. She was selected to the all-tournament team along with senior forward Tyra Johnson.

"It became evident from the start [of the season] that our senior leadership would pave the way for another successful year," the coach said.

"The highlight of the [third place] game was being able to have all five seniors on the floor at the same time finishing their careers," coach Guebert said.

New Prague has named Andrea Peterson its new girls' hockey coach, replacing Matt Miller. Peterson served as an assistant coach under Miller this past season.

The Trojans finished with an overall record of 20-7-1 this year and wound up third in the Missota Conference. They lost in the Class 1A, Section 1 finals to Red Wing, which took third place in the state tournament.

Peterson, a four-time All-American as a defenseman at Gustavus Adolphus, won the Laura Hurd Award her senior season. The award is presented to the Division III women's player of the year.

The White Bear Lake High School graduate also served as an assistant coach at Gustavus Adolphus.

• Freshman Grayson Nicolay led the Dakota United adapted floor hockey team to a runner-up finish in the PI Division at the state tournament on Saturday at Bloomington Jefferson.

In the semifinals, Nicolay scored his fifth goal of the game in overtime as the Hawks edged Anoka-Hennepin.

Nicolay was coming off a seven-goal, two-assist performance in a 10-1 triumph over Wayzata/Minnetonka in the quarterfinals.

• In the CI Division, junior Alex Palma and sophomore Matthew Schoenbauer combined for 18 goals as New Prague/Tri-City United/LeSueur-Henderson topped Maple Grove 19-9 in the quarterfinals. The Trojans went on to finish fourth.