The sets started off with Barnesville coming out aggressively and looking to make a statement early. The two teams traded points back and forth until the sets ended. The first set and second set were completely opposite of each other with Barnesville really passing well in the opener and then in the second set really struggling with their passing. Perham took advantage of the Trojan errors in the second and third set. “We stopped being aggressive and didn’t shake off our mistakes and you could see the energy leaving from our side of the court,” noted Askegaard. “We needed to battle back quicker in set 3. We just got going a little too late and couldn’t quite get over those 3 points we were trailing by. Perham did a nice job picking up our balls that we were sending over and our block needed to be better up on the net. We rolled into set 4 with more aggressive net play and our backrow defense (Kenzie Skogen, Kenadee Gray, Sydney Strand) picking up balls in the backcourt while Rumley Biewer and Jaida Bontjes did a great job finding our middles to score some points for us. Emily Smith did a great job serving and really made the Jacket passers run their offense out of system.” 

Barnesville moved into the 5th set with the momentum from winning set 4 to find down 6-12. “Biewer and Skogen did a great job back on the serving line putting their ball in the court and allowing their defense to work for them,” reported Coach Askegaard. “Skogen was back on the line for match point. She sent the ball over and she ends up getting the dig and sets up Rumely to Belle Peterson for the kill down the outside line to end the match. Great volleyball match up tonight with two great volleyball programs. This win tonight is a great confidence booster for our team to show them just what they are capable of doing. We talked a lot about having confidence in ourselves tonight and in our teammates and tonight we put it all to work out on the volleyball court.” 

Barnesville was led by Smith (17 kills, 17/18 serving, 2 aces, 4 solo blocks, 1 block assist), Peterson (12 kills), Emily Riddle (8 kills), Skogen (26 digs, 1 solo block, 18/18 serving, 1 ace, 4 kills), Strand (19 digs, 11/12 serving), Gray (11 digs, 10/11 serving), Biewer (25 set assists, 23/24 serving, 2 aces, 6 digs) and Amelia Newell (12/13 serving).

The Trojans and Yellowjacket are off to the Hawley tourney on Saturday.