“We had some trouble adjusting to the higher, slower offense of the Cardinals and receiving their aggressive serving at the start of the night,” observed Pelican Rapids Head Coach Heidi Isaman.  “We made some adjustments and started to get our own offense going.  Even though we hit the ball well, we made too many serve receive and defense errors and lost a close first set.  We started set two slowly again, but turned the corner quickly getting ourselves in system to get all hitters in the game and were able to even the match at a set apiece.  We gained some confidence and started the third set very strong.  We served well and senior Kia Nelson came off the bench to set well for us.  We controlled the offense all set and took a 2-1 lead in the match.  Set 4 saw the Cardinals start to get themselves in system and it was a back-and-forth battle.  We did not pass the ball as well and we ended up losing the set to put a fifth set in play.  The Cardinals started the set strong and we did not get back in system and ended up playing more defense than offense.  We had some moments of great volleyball tonight, but overall, we made too many errors to pull out the win.”

The Vikings were led by Anna Roisum (14 kills, 6 digs, 21 set assists), Ellie Welch (9 kills, 6 aces, 6 digs, 20 set assists), Kelsey Isaman (8 kills, 17 digs), Marie Backstrom (7 digs, 2 kills, 1 block kill), Claudia Gurath (4 kills, 5 digs), Hazel Haugrud (24 digs, 1 ace), Morgan Korf (49 digs, 3 aces) and Kia Nelson (1 ace, 2 assists).  Zayla Arrow added 1 block kill, 1 kill and a pair of digs.

Pelican Rapids will host Hawley in their final regular season Heart O’ Lakes Conference match on Tuesday.