“The community of Pelican Rapids showed their amazing school spirit coming out to support the team and our girls were excited to get back on our home court,” commented Pelican Rapids Head Coach Heidi Isaman.  “The Vikings knew that the Eagles were a very strong team that run a quick aggressive offense and come with a lot of experience at a high level.  We also knew that if we could get ourselves in system and block well we could compete with the top ranked Eagles.  To start the Vikings were a little nervous and jittery.  The aggressive serving of NYM hindered us from getting ourselves in system to get the momentum shifted our way with our offense and their quick offensive patterns challenged our blockers to time their block correctly.  The Eagles held control of set one and two since we had to play more defense than offense.  Set 3 was a different scenario.  The Vikings did a good job of serving aggressively back which caused the Eagles to send some free balls our way to finally give our offense some opportunities.  The Vikings rallied and made a great set come to life with a back and forth battle but a few errors caused the Vikings to fall a bit short. 

The Vikings were led by Ryley Paulson (5 kills, 8 digs), Greta Tollefson (4 kills, 8 digs, 2.5 blocks), Anna Stephenson (4 kills, 2 aces, 6 digs, 1 block), Riley Berg (4 kills, 3 aces, 8 digs, 1 block), Allie Haiby (5 digs, 1 ace) and Sophia Paulson (5 set assists).

The Viking will host 3 games next week with Battle Lake, Staples-Motley, and Barnesville.