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Trojans Beat Vikings 3-0 in Barnesville

By Craig Olson, 10/09/20, 11:00AM CDT

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The Pelican Rapids volleyball team was so grateful to have the opportunity to have their season opener Thursday night against the Barnesville Trojans.  The last minute change by the MSHSL to allow 2 fans per athlete made the night that much more complete.  The Trojans were able to protect their home court and record a 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-21) victory over the Vikings.

“We knew we were starting the season against one of the toughest team in the conference and the Trojans proved that several times throughout the night,” commented Pelican Rapids Head Coach Heidi Isaman.  “However, the Vikings held their own all night and really started to get into a rhythm in the 3rd set.  We had some amazing hustle plays by seniors Kiera Booth and Anna Stephenson.  Senior setter Greta Tollefson ran the team with confidence and made some very smart decisions throughout the night.  Our right side hitters Ella Backstrom and Ellie Welch made big improvements on setting the block throughout the night and brought some big offensive opportunities for us.  Sophomore Kelsey Isaman made some huge digs for us to slow down the Trojans in set 3 and junior Tori Stephenson gave us a good run of offensive kills.  Senior Allie Haiby and sophomore Sylvia Pesch helped the Vikings get into system and start to take control of the game in set 3.” 

Statistical leaders for the Vikings were Kelsey Isaman (9 digs, 2 kills, 1 ace), Anna Stephenson (8 digs, 5 kills), Allie Haiby (8 digs), Greta Tollefson (5 kills, 3 digs) and Tori Stephenson (5 kills). 

“Nobody likes to start the season with a loss, but I was extremely proud of the effort and teamwork shown by all these girls tonight,” exclaimed Isaman.  “We had some trouble closing our block on the pin and serve receive was a weakness for us in the first 2 sets which will be our big goals to work on before our next conference match coming up on Tuesday, October 13 where we take on Perham at home.” 

The Trojans were led by Samantha Passa (12 kills, 13/13 serving, 1 ace, 17 digs), Lexi Bolgrean (16 kills, 9/10 seriving, 1 ace, 16 digs), Katie Newell (17 set assists, 21/21 serving, 7 aces), Kim Maesse (16 set assists, 9/9 serving, 1 ace, 7 digs) and Allie Aadland (22 digs).

We had our season opener last night with the Vikings. Lots of team excitement as MSHSL allowed fans into the gym for the game.

Players were ready to play an actual game after weeks of preseason practice and thinking we were only going to have practices and no contests.

“In the first 2 sets we were able to string together points by our strong first ball served and our aggressive attacking on the net,” stated Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard. “Our hitters up front did an outstanding job working the PR defense and finding some open holes on the court. They are very scrappy and quick in the backcourt and play great defense. There were many times that we thought the ball was down and they came back with it. They set us up for many free ball attempts that we were able to capitalize on. Lexi had a great night up front and led our attacking. She is a strong player on the OH for us with great court sense. Kim and Katie worked hard on taking our free ball passes to our hitters and making sure we were getting the best attack that we possibly could.”

Askegaard continued, “The 3rd set tonight had PR attacking our defensive holes and us making some errors on our block upfront. You can definitely tell that it is very early on and now we know what things we need to work on. We did not serve receive or block the greatest tonight, but overall I was very pleased with how our home opener went tonight. It was great to be back in the gym coaching games that we didn’t think were going to happen.”