“A competitive HOL matchup as always and we expected it to be that way,” said Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard.  “We saw them a couple times over the summer but didn’t play them much at all and we haven’t seen them at a tournament at all either.  They had strong middle attacks and great setters, and they are always fundamentally sound and make smart plays. We struggled in the first set in our serve receive and getting things moving where we wanted them to go. Mariah Watt is tough in the middle for DGF and our block was just off to start the night. We found ourselves trailing early on in the first set until we finally closed the gap at 14-14 with our blocking coming in strong for us and helping us on the defensive end. Emily Condon (13/13 serving, 21 digs) got us the lead at 23-20 before DGF was able to come up with a side out. This game was intense with both teams making some great plays on the defensive end and trying to put the ball away aggressively. It was an intense set with both sides playing great. We ended it with a setter dump kill by Katie Newell (12/13 serving, 2 aces, 6 set assists, 4 digs) and a serving ace by Sam Passa (8/9 serving, 2 aces, 16 digs). We hung onto the momentum moving into the second set where we moved the ball well and played strong defense. Our block was really great tonight and our defense once again was relentless. These girls don’t get down on themselves and play hard no matter what the score is. Our serving game was also strong tonight with only 3 errors on the night. It was a great HOL game. We honored Sam Passa for her 1,000 digs achievement over the weekend and then signed autographs for the kids and our fans.”

Other leaders for Barnesville were Lexi Bogrean (7 kills, 9/10 serving, 8 digs), Emily Bredman (4 kills, 3 solo blocks, 2 block assists) and Jordan Tschumperlin (14/14 serving, 1 ace, 2 solo blocks, 5 block assists).