“The girls came out on fire with a great deal of intensity to start off the night,” commented Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard. “We really capitalized on the mistakes that the Nuggets were making and took advantage of having the ball in our hands. We played smart along the net with our 3rd ball in the first set and really placed our first serve ball in a tough spot for the Nugget serve receive. We maintained all the control for the first set and finished strong. Set two slipped away from us as we made too many attacking errors and blocking errors up on the net. We game them too many free points without having to work very hard. I thought we still played good defense when they attacked us, however we need to be more intentional with the 3rd contact. The Hawley Nuggets really battled back and came ready to play in this set. We had many long rallies and great volleyball plays back and forth tonight making for some long tiring sets this early on in the year. We were a great match up against each other with many similarities of both teams. We had the opportunities tonight, we just needed to put the ball away in more key situations. I was very pleased with how well we played tonight and we definitely saw how important it is to play tough defense all the time and be on the attack in every play. If we can eliminate some mistakes on our side of the net we will be able to come out on top.”

The Trojans were led by Emily Smith (12 kills, 26/27 serving, 2 aces, 8 digs), Belle Peterson (6 kills, 4 digs), Rumley Biewer (16 set assists, 11/11 serving, 1 ace, 11 digs), Amelia Newell (17/18 serving, 2 aces, 9 digs), Kenzie Skogen (13/13 serving, 1 ace, 22 digs, 4 kills), Kenadee Gray (12/14 serving, 2 aces, 6 digs), Sydney Strand (7/10 serving, 3 aces, 13 digs) and Emily Riddle (4 kills, 3 solo blocks, 1 block assist).

“Emily Smith had a solid match tonight on offense,” noted Coach Askegaard. “She served the ball every well and made it difficult for the Hawley serve receive to move into their offense like they planned. She also led us up on the net too. Our backrow defense and serve receive of Skogen, Strand, and Gray picked up many hard placed balls by the Nuggets and passed the ball very well tonight for us.” 

No Hawley stats were reported.