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Barnesville hosted Underwood on Tuesday night with the Trojans posting a 3-1 win over the Rockets. “We had a really slow start against a very strong Barnesville team,” said Underwood Head Coach Breck Grove. “They played great defense which made it difficult for us to really get anything going. We picked it up in the third and fourth sets which caused them to play out of system a little more.”
Underwood was led by Mily Albjerg (13 digs, 9 kills, 18/18 serving, 2 aces), Alayna Evavold (8 kills, 1 block assists), Jorja Gabrielson (6 kills, 8/9 serving, 2 aces, 2 solo blocks), Becca Johnson (31 digs, 15/16 serving, 1 ace), Brooke Christianson (15 digs, 8 kills, 11/12 serving), Kallyn Grove (40 set assists, 17/17 serving, 1 ace, 5 kills, 12 digs) and Elizabeth Lukken (13 digs, 13 kills, 10/11 serving, 1 ace).
“The girls started off with great energy after coming off a long weekend tournament,” said Head Coach Megan Askegaard of the Trojans. “We served the ball very well in the opening set and made some great plays on defense. Underwood made some attacking errors early in the match and that really helped us gain some momentum out on the court. I really though our defense looked good as we were picking up balls on defense and passing very well out of serve receive. Rumely, Jaida and Amelia did a great job together working the block from Underwood and making them second guess where we were going to put the ball.”
Leaders for the Trojans were Emily Smith (12 kills, 18/18 serving, 1 ace), Belle Peterson (8 kills, 3 solo blocks), Emily Riddle (7 kills, 3 solo blocks), Amelia Newell (15/15 serving, 6 set assists, 3 kills), Kenadee Gray (16/17 serving, 2 aces, 8 digs), Kenzie Skogen (21/21 serving, 1 ace, 13 digs, 4 kills), Rumley Biewer (4 kills, 9/12 serving 1 ace, 6 digs, 19 set assists) and Sydney Strand (10/12 serving, 2 aces, 14 digs).
As the night progressed we made more errors on our side that cost us easy points and allowed the Rockets to sneak back in and get the third set,” added Coach Askegaard. “We really need to step up and end the match when we have the opportunity to. I thought we were quiet on the court and once we stopped talking, the energy that we did have left the court. We need to stay more focused and confident as we near the end of the night. This is a hard concept to understand until you are in that moment and I think we are starting to see it all come together. We just need to be more consistent at all times. We battled back in the fourth set and made some more aggressive plays on the defensive end. Our middles attacked the entire court and made the Rocket defense scramble to pick up their hard attacks.”
Barnesville (5-5) has a road match with Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton on Thursday, while Underwood (6-4) is at Parkers Prairie on Thursday.