Here is how Coach Askegaard summed up each set.

Set 1 - “We had a few goals to start the night and one of them was to come out nice and loose and play our match under our control. We didn’t want to play tense and nervous, but with a ton of confidence in ourselves and teammates. Tournament time can really bring out the emotions. We kicked off the night with trading point for point with the Jackets until Katie Newell took the serve and pushed point for point to put us up 14-6 before they scored on a defensive error on our side of the net. We serve received them really well in the first set and allowed Katie to run our hitters pin to pin and really spread apart the Jacket block at the net. Kenzie Skogen rounded out the night serving up a couple aces with strong defensive plays in the backcourt. We read their hitters very well and picked up many tough hit balls on defense.” 

Set 2 – “We started off with Anna Stanford serving the first balls in some terrific places and taking them out of system. We were extremely tough tonight with our first balls and made if difficult to run their offense in system. Anna gave us a 8-2 start to the match before the Trojans had a hitting error up on the net. The Jackets battled back and made some runs serving where we could not side out. They stayed active up on the net and we worked hard to get the ball back. We were able to side out at 23-21 and finish the match behind Emily Smith serving an ace serve against the Jackets.” 

Set 3 – “Moving into the third set, we needed to keep up the intensity and continue to work hard on the defensive end. We traded points with Jackets and keep up the tie until 8-8 and we were finally able to pull ahead with some strong attacks on the net from Lexi Bolgrean and Emily Bredman. Kenzie Skogen went back to the serving line and again really worked the Jacket passers. We led 18-11 before the Jackets found a hole in our defense. Emily Bredman had a huge solo block up on the net to push the lead to 20-13. Anna Stanford, Lexi, Sydney Strand and Kenzie played some phenomenal back row defense tonight. They read the hitters well and moved quickly on their feet to pick up any ball they could get to. Katie did a great job keeping the ball moving along the net to keep their blocks always moving.”

Stat leaders were Bolgrean (12 kills, 12 digs), Bredman (8 kills, 3 solo blocks, 1 block assist), Newell (27 set assists, 9/10 serving, 1 ace, 6 digs), Emily Smith (6 kills, 13/13 serving, 2 aces), Stanford (5 kills, 12/12 serving, 10 digs), Strand (12/12 serving, 12 digs) and Skogen 16/18 serving, 2 aces, 6 digs). 

No Perham stats were received.

“Tonight was a great team effort and fun first night of playoffs for the girls,” said Askegaard. “We move on to play Hawley next Thursday at a site to be determined.”