The first set started out with Kenzie Skogen giving Barnesville a 3 point lead from some strong serves. Lexi Bolgrean also had a nice serving run in the first set taking Trojans to a 14-7 lead.  “In the first set we really served well and caused some problems for them on their first ball,” observed Askegaard. “Our defense hustled and moved their feet well to get to many balls that were hit on our side.”

Set 2 found the two teams trading points back and forth as each battled to try and take control of the match. “We had a few too many attacking errors early in the set that had us trailing from the start 3-7,” acknowledged Coach Askegaard. “We battled back and played better defense and we were finally able to tie the match up at 19 from some great serves from Sydney Strand. The Rebels continued to attack us and we had to always fight a little harder on defense to catch them. We finally took the lead 22-21 but had a blocking error that forced another tie at 22. Lexi went back to the serving line after we regained the ball from a solo block from Lauren and she pushed serves and finished the set for us.”

Barnesville continued to hold on to the momentum from taking the second set and pushed into what they were hoping was the final set of the night. “We seemed more aggressive up at the net in this 3rd set. Anna Stanford was able to find the holes that Katie Newell was putting her in and swing through to score points against the Rebels. Our passing on serve receive was flawless and Sydney and Kenzie did a great job hustling after some hard hit and well placed balls. Our blockers did a nice job tonight and made it much easier for the backrow to pick up some balls on defense. Emily Smith and Emily Bredman really worked the net well for us tonight on offense and defense. It was a great team victory.”

Newell finished with 26 set assists and 9 digs.  She was also 14-for-16 serving with a trio of aces.  Bolgrean was a perfect 15-for-15 serving with 3 aces. She added 9 kills and 13 digs.  Stanford had a team high 12 kills and had 2 solo blocks and 7 digs.  Strand led the team with 14 digs and was perfect on 9 serves.  Smith was 10-for-11 serving with a couple of aces and Skogen was 11-for-13 on the line.  Skogen also picked up 10 digs.  Bredman had 4 block assists and 4 kills, and Lauren Halverson had 2 solo blocks and 2 block assists to go along with 4 kills.