According to Coach Megan Askegaard, “the Lady Trojans really started off slow and made many errors early in the night. We found ourselves playing hard from behind to get things going. We were making errors in all areas- serve receive, setting and attacking. We fought hard in the first two sets, but we were always coming up a couple points short. We turned things around in set 3 making some defensive changes and knew that we needed to battle back against their strong outside hitters. Our defense definitely stepped up tonight when it needed to and that led to a stronger attack at the net. We took great control in Set 3 and made the plays at the net that we hadn’t been making earlier. Our serve receive was solid tonight and we passed the ball really well to our setters. Emily Bredman (11 kills, 4 solo blocks) had a great night in the middle getting in to attack and killing the ball. She also did an outstanding job closing the block against those hitters. Allie Aadland (10/11 serving, 2 aces, 3 digs) came in and gave us a nice spark from the serving line as well as in the back row. In Set 4 we also had a great start and pushed the lead behind some strong serving by Katie Newell (12/14 serving, 4 digs), Allie Aadland, and Anna Stanford (6/6 serving, 2 aces) who came in off the bench to play for Lexi Bolgrean (17/18 serving, 2 aces, 23 digs, 4 kills) who went down with a sprained ankle.  Set 5 is always quick and we made sure we didn’t make mistakes and give them any free points. Our defense once again came through for us with Emily Condon (18/18 serving, 3 aces, 23 digs) picking up some great defensive digs off a tough Breckenridge attack. Our setters did an outstanding job getting the ball up to our hitters and they put the ball away. It was a solid team effort tonight in a very warm setting. Very proud of our team and their ability to battle back and not give up.”

Sam Passa added 9 kills and 13 digs, Jordan Tschumperlin was 10-for-11 serving with 5 digs, 4 kills, a solo block and a block assist, Kim Maesse distributed 21 set assists, had 9 digs, and was a perfect 15-for-15 on the serving line, and Lauren Halverson had 4 kills and 3 digs.

Leaders for Breckenridge were Camryn Kaehler (14 kills, 9 digs, 1 solo block), Abby Johnson (10 kills, 6 digs), Kaitlin Arnhalt (18 set assists, 12 digs, 2 aces), Kayley Ceroll (7 set assists, 3 digs), Madelyn Larson (10 digs), Riley Finkral (10 digs, 4 set assists, 1 ace, 2 block assists), Jude Held (4 kills, 2 block assists), Riley Lorenz (4 kills, 3 digs, 1 solo block, 2 block assists) and Victoria Undem (4 kills, 2 digs, 1 block assist).

The Cowgirls fell to 9-3 with the loss.