Statistical leaders for the day were Rumley Biewer (55 set assists, 15 digs, 8 kills, 3 aces), Strand (25 digs, 2 aces), Skogen (22 digs, 2 aces, 7 kills), Gray (20 digs, 2 aces), Smith 15 digs, 26 kills, 3 aces, 2 blocks), Riddle (25 kills, 7 blocks) and Belle Peterson (10 kills, 4 digs).

“We started the day off against Staples-Motley and we were a little slow getting going in the first set, but found a way to turn some errors into strings of points on our side,” stated Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard. “Once our feet got moving out on the court we played much better defense that really helped to spark our offense. We played smart and really focused on our first ball and limiting our 3rd ball errors. I always tell the girls in the morning that we need to play to get warmed up and into the flow of the game before we try to make big plays right off the bat. By the second set we found the holes in their defense and Emily Riddle and Emily Smith, or Emily Squared, as their teammates refer to them, sparked our offense and really hit the ball well. Defensively Sydney Strand, Kenadee Gray, and Kenzie Skogen passed the free balls on the net where we needed them and made things easier for our setters to work their offense the way that they wanted to.” 

Askegaard continued, “Second match up was against the Sebeka Trojans as they beat TRF in their first round. It was Trojans vs. Trojans in the first set battle. It seems like we always have marathon matches with them. The Trojans had a tough right side attack with a couple tall powerful hitters that attacked above the net and above our block. I was pleased with how well our back row picked up balls in this first set as we struggled a bit to get a good touch on the ball for our defenders. Both teams struggled with their serving a bit so that really balanced each other out on the first ball errors that were occurring. We held on to the first set and played with more aggressiveness in the second set. We were able to stay in our offense as much as possible and made some great adjustments in that second set to stay strong start to finish. That is really something that we had worked for this season.” 

As for the semifinal match, here is Coach Askegaard’s assessment, “Our first set in bracket play put us up against the Henning Hornets as they defeated Park Rapids and Hawley. The Hornets came out firing on all cylinders and took an early 0-9 lead against the Trojans before we came up with a block on the net to stop their run 1-10. They had a great setter who dumped on us many times in the middle of the court and we failed to pick it up on defense. They also have some strong hitters that we just couldn’t get a hand on. The second set we tried to redeeming ourselves, however their tough serving and our blocking errors and errors on the defensive side really made it difficult for us to stick with them at all. Once we did get a pass, set, then our 3rd ball was an error. We worked hard, however the pieces just didn’t fall into place for us in this set. Henning would move into the Championship up against Sauk Centre who defeated Frazee, Fosston, and Underwood. They would go on to win the Championship against Henning in 2-0.” 

Coach Askegaard summed up the third place match this way, “We moved in to the 3rd place bracket against Underwood. We passed the ball very well in the first set with the Rockets and settled back into our offense and really played our style of volleyball. Our middle attackers were eager to hit the ball and Rumley did a great job finding them when she could. Emily Smith and Amelia strung together a couple nice serving runs against their passers. Underwood has a great setter and we made them really work hard to get their hitters the ball. We were up 21-15 and before we knew if we were struggling to find a pass and the Rockets took advantage of our mistakes and made us really dig in down the stretch to finish the match. Moving into the second set we started on the receiving end of the net and scored on the first ball. Amelia once again served them aggressively and helped us take a 7-2 lead early on. Our tough defense and aggressive net play was just too much for the Rockets and we really wore on them in the backrow. They have some great talent coming up and they will be fun to watch in the upcoming years. It was a great end to a long day of volleyball! We are off to Park Rapids on Tuesday and then home for Senior Night on Thursday against Pelican.”