“We knew that the Yellowjackets would be out for revenge after we beat them at home in an HOL Conference matchup a couple of weeks ago,” said Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard.  “We needed to be ready to play from the start and really disrupt what they wanted to do.  They have many talented players and many girls that can attack the ball well.  They are also very fundamentally sound in the back row.”

Leaders for the Trojans were Emily Smith (11 kills, 11/11 serving, 1 solo block), Emily Riddle (10 kills, 1 solo block), Kenzie Skogen (7 kills, 21 digs, 12/14 serving), Belle Peterson (5 kills, 5 digs), Rumley Biewer (25 set assists, 8/9 serving, 6 digs), Sydney Strand (11 digs, 12/12 serving, 1 ace), Kailey Olson (6/7 serving, 2 aces) and Kenadee Gray (7/7 serving, 9 digs).

“From the start of the first set we were not communicating as a team on the court,” noted Askegaard.  “We just looked like we really weren’t all there mentally and ready to play.  We were back on our heels and Perham caught us standing and watching too many times.  We played hard, however, we needed to be more aggressive and put the ball away instead of playing careful and set the tone right from the start.  Perham took advantage of our lack of urgency and attacked us.  We got stuck in serve receive way too much.  Our passers did not make it easy on our setters to put up a good ball that could be attacked by all our hitters.  We were very readable and they knew exactly where we were going with it.  Our girls played hard, Perham was just ready to go and get a win during their homecoming week.  It was a great test for us to see where we are at this point of the season.”

No Perham stats were reported.

Perham (10-10) will host DGF on Thursday and will host their home tournament on Saturday.

Barnesville (10-8) will return to Perham to participate in the Yellowjackets Tournament on Saturday.