“We had a slow start to the night, falling behind 9-2 in the first set,” said Breckenridge Head Coach Margaret Wilson.  “We came back and tied the set a three different points before pulling through for the win.  We had five kill blocks just in the first set as our blocking game was very good throughout the match.  We played well the rest of the night.”

Abby Johnson (14 kills), Camryn Kaehler (12 kills, 7 digs), Carcie Materi (17 set assists, 6 digs), Sophie Larson (13 set assists, 6 digs), Riley Finkral (25 digs, 5 aces) and Ana Erickson (4 kills, 4 digs, 2 aces, 3 blocks) were the leaders for the Cowgirls.

The Vikings have had a busy 3 game week with many lineup changes due to some key missing players. 

“I was so proud of how these girls dealt with all the changes we threw at them with new positions and a new offense this week,” commented Pelican Rapids Head Coach Heidi Isaman. “They really started to get into a consistent flow tonight with this new lineup and made huge improvements on the court.” 

Set 1 the Vikings started strong with a 14-6 lead.  “We serve received very well to get our offense in system,” noted Coach Isaman.  “Middle hitter Anna Roisum and outside hitter Tori Stephenson hit the ball very aggressively tonight. The Vikings and the Cowgirls had some great rallies but a dropped ball and some blocking issues gave the Cowgirls the opportunity to gain the lead and the Vikings lost a close fought battle.  We knew we needed to stay more aggressive at the net and make a few blocking adjustments going into set 2.  Anna Roisum did a good job of getting more aggressive at the net tonight and got some key touches on their powerful pin hitters and was our kill leader tonight with 6 kills.  The Cowgirls beefed up their aggressive serving and we had a run of struggling to pass at the level we needed to in order to keep our offense aggressive as we lost set two.  We started slow with a few serve receive and communication issues in set 3 but fought back hard mid set.  Libero Morgan Korf played solid all night.  Korf did a great job moving from a setting role to Libero role and was our dig leader with 21 digs.  Kelsey Isaman and Morgan Korf did a great job serve receiving all night against the Cowgirls aggressive serving to set up our setter Sophia Paulson to have more hitters available.  The Vikings showed great fight and had 2 monster blocks by Kelsey Isaman and Anna Roisum but could not quite catch the Cowgirls.  I was extremely proud of these girls tonight.  They played good volleyball against a very strong ranked Cowgirls team. The Vikings made huge improvement tonight in many areas and are continuing to show amazing work ethic and coach ability.” 

The Vikings were led by Roisum (6 kills, 1.5 blocks), Stephenson (5 kills, 7 digs, 1 ace), Ellie Welch (4 kills, 2 digs), Paulson (10 set assists, 3 digs) Korf (21 digs, 1 ace), Isaman (3 kills,6 digs, 1.5 blocks) and Zoe Kekaha (2 aces, 5 digs).

The Vikings continue a busy schedule of traveling, going to New York Mills on Monday and West Central Area in Barrett on Tuesday.