“We knew we needed to get our offense in system so we could attack their strong blockers,” said Pelican Rapids Head Coach Heidi Isaman.  “The Vikings started strong doing just that.  Setters Ellie Welch and Anna Roisum set the ball very well tonight giving our front row consistent sets all night.  The Vikings swung strong and used the blockers to our advantage, however, the Eagles also did a good job of getting their offense in system.”

A big run of 8 points from the Eagles aggressive outside hitter put them up 22-17 in the opening set and they were able to take advantage of some hitting and serving errors by the Vikings down the stretch. 

“Set 2 we knew we needed to slow down their strong outside hitter and serve receive at a little higher level so we could get our middle hitters more in the offense,” noted Isaman.  “We started strong again doing just that but the Eagles changed up their offense a bit too and we were slow on blocking their quicker offense.  This was a strong back and forth battle at the net but we gave them too many unearned points again.” 

The Vikings had an injury to their outside hitter Hazel Haugrud in the third set and they had girls in new positions coming in to fill the spot.  “We handled this change pretty well and started to hit the ball again after being out of system way too much to start the game.  The Vikings got some good quality touches at the net on defense to slow their hitters down but we struggled a lot more to serve receive in set 3 which made it hard for us to stay aggressive.  This was a hard loss for these girls as they had great moments of execution at a high level but the mental mistakes really affected us tonight.”

Leaders for the Vikings were Welch (9 kills, 2 aces, 7 digs, 9 assists, 1 block), Roisum (9 kills, 7 assists), Kelsey Isaman (5 kills, 13 digs), Morgan Korf (18 digs, 2 aces) and Haugrud (5 digs). 

The Vikings have a day to regroup and prepare for their next conference match up Thursday against Frazee at home.