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The Pelican Rapids Vikings traveled to Fergus Falls to take on the Hillcrest Comets Thursday, August 29th. The Vikings came off a tough loss to Park Christian on Tuesday and were hoping to get their first win of the season, while Hillcrest was playing their first game of the season and opening their season on a court other than their own, the Kennedy Secondary School Gold Gymnasium. Pelican Rapids prevailed in the match, winning 25-14, 25-14, 25-9.
“The Vikings knew we needed to use all our hitters tonight and do a better job of getting our middle hitters in the offense than we did Tuesday,” said Head Coach Heidi Isaman. “Greta Tollefson (7 kills, 1.5 blocks, 2 ace serves, 8 digs, 5 assists) had a solid night blocking at the net and setter Anna Stephenson (8 assists, 5 kills, 2 ace serves, 4 digs) did a great job of getting our sets to the tape so our hitters could swing away. Right Side hitter Janae Femling (4 kills) made some big improvement and had a big night at the net for us. Our serving tonight was quite aggressive with 13 aces on the night. Riley Berg (2 kills, 4 ace serves, 8 digs, 1.5 blocks) and Kelsey Isaman (4 ace serves, 7 digs) served very strongly for the Vikings tonight. We had a little trouble utilizing all the free ball opportunities to get more hitters in the offense by not getting that free ball consistently to the net. We hit the ball pretty well when we had the opportunity and still need to work harder at get more offensive opportunities. Ryley Paulson (9 digs, 5 kills) played a solid front and back row game and Karina Torres did a great job of coming off the bench to contribute to the Viking offense.”
Hillcrest Coach Debi Foss said, “It’s good to finally play your first game of the season and see what’s working and what’s not working. While we definitely had our struggles and lots of first game jitters, there were some moments when things clicked. We have younger players who are getting their first varsity minutes and others playing new positions so I’m working to find the right decisions and what is right for the team.”
Leaders for the Comets were Amanda Dekok (2 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs), Molly McGuire (1 kill, 6 digs), Natalie Zwiers (2 kills), Olivia Stanton (4 set assists, 6 digs), Audra Ewan (4 set assists, 3 digs) and Mackenzie Foss (19 digs, 2 kills).
“Thank you to Fergus Falls High School for allowing us to play our “Home Opener” at Kennedy High School,” said Foss. “We’ll have the added challenge for the next several weeks of playing all of our games and practices off campus while our gym floor is being repaired.”
The Comets next match is Tuesday against Park Christian School in Moorhead.