Outside hitter Kelsey Isaman (13 kills, 17 digs, 2 aces) hit the ball very well in set 1 to attack their blockers and get 6 early kills.  Senior Ellie Welch (4 aces, 5 kills, 11 digs, 20 set assists) served the ball aggressively to give the Vikings two good runs in the opening set, and Libero Morgan Korf (41 digs, 1 ace, 2 kills) had a great start to her big night, reading the ball on the defensive end and making play after play.

In the second set freshman Allie Thompson (9 digs, 1 ace) came off the bench to serve and play defense and did a great job jumping into the mix, serving 9 straight points to start the set.  The Vikings also did a better job of getting their middle hitters in the offense and Anna Roisum (17 set assists, 6 digs, 12 kills) started to swing away and get some monster kills.

The third set saw the Vikings drop their communication level and struggle to read the ball defensively.  “We started reacting to the ball which caused too many dropped balls and ball control issues,” noted Coach Isaman.  “We also struggled more with our serve receive which caused us to lose our aggressiveness at the net.  We had a few good runs but not enough to seal the deal.  In the fourth set we still did not have our best serve receive game, but setters Anna Roisum and Ellie Welch did a good job of setting up our hitters and we got more aggressive again at the net.  We also continued to serve aggressively and got the Hornets out of system.”  Right side hitters Marie Backstrom (4 kills, 3 digs) and Claudia Gurath (2 kills) did a good job attacking.  The Vikings were playing without normal starter Hazel Haugrud who was out with an injury.

“I was really proud of the girls tonight,” concluded Isaman.  “Grace Backstrom, Allie Thompson, Ava Simpson and Kia Nelson did a good job coming off the bench and filling some needed roles.”

Pelican Rapids is on the road next week, traveling to Lake Park-Audubon on Monday and Barnesville on Thursday.