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The Lady Trojans faced a tough Wadena-Deer Creek team on Tuesday night with the Wolverines sweeping past the visitors in 3 sets, 25-23, 25-18, 25-16. “The Wolverines have some strong hitters on the net with a great deal of power,” stated Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard. “They attacked the net aggressively from the outside and really took advantage of our block early in the match.”
The Trojans made a great comeback in the first set and took the lead at 17-15 behind their defense that was picking up balls in the backcourt. They were able to push ahead to 22-18 before struggling to put the 3rd ball away late in the first set. “As a team we need to battle strong to the finish and put teams away when we have the opportunity, especially when they have as many tools at they do,” reported Coach Askegaard.
Barnesville continued to battle back against them, however, the Wolverines strong attack was too much for the Trojans. Emily Riddle and Emily Smith were able to lay down some nice tips in the middle to score a couple easy points here and there, while Belle Peterson did a nice job finding holes down the line in their defense. Defensively, Sydney Strand moved to the ball very well and picked up many hard hit balls coming at her. “We need to be a little scrappier on defense to allow them no free points,” added Askegaard. “The girls played hard tonight and Wadena is a very good team. They fought hard, however, it just wasn’t enough to come out on top.”
The Trojans were led statistically by Peterson (9 kills), Riddle (5 kills, 2 solo blocks, 1 block assist), Smith (5 kills, 19/20 serving, 1 ace, 1 solo block), Rumley Biewer (8/8 serving, 13 set assists), Amelia Newell (6/6 serving, 3 set assists), Kenzie Skogen (11/14 serving, 1 ace, 5 digs), Strand (6 digs) and Kenadee Gray (6 digs, 5/6 serving, 1 ace).
“Couple things we need to better before playing against a tough Perham team on Thursday,” noted Coach Askegaard. “We need to be more aggressive on the defensive end. We hesitated too much tonight instead of just committing and going for the ball when we could make a play. We talked about being playmakers and getting into the action more and not being hesitant on the court. We need all 6 players playing defense and offense at all times. We are doing many things well this early in the season. Volleyball is such a game of momentum, you have to be able to find it and keep it on your side. I know that we will work out the kinks and then play the volleyball that we can when we need to. Losses are tough, but we are learning and gaining the playing experience at a varsity level with each match we play.”