“The Tigers were currently sitting at the top of their section with a record of 23-3 going into Tuesday’s match,” reported Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegard. “We started off with the momentum on our side and played very aggressive in the first set. We served them tough and played smart up on the net with our 3rd balls. Emily Riddle (5 solo blocks, 4 block assists) had a great night blocking on the net and made it difficult for the Tigers to attack over her. They are a great team with many players who attacked for them. Our serve receive passing was on tonight and we made our setters job easier by getting them the ball up on the net. Both teams were very scrappy on the defensive side and made many great hustle plays to keep the ball alive tonight. We dropped the second set when we were not playing as aggressive as we were in the first. We tipped the ball too often and without a purpose to score on it. I was pleased with how well we battled back after dropping the set and came out attacking again in the 3rd set. We played well on the road tonight and it’s always fun to see how your team is playing at this point in the season. Volleyball is really a marathon game and not a sprint to the finish.”

Top servers for the Lady Trojans were Rumley Biewer (19/19), Amelia Newell (16/17), Emily Smith (17/17, 1 ace), Kenadee Gray (15/15), Kenzie Skogen (14/14) and Sydney Strand (11/12, 1 ace).

Attack leaders were Smith (12 kills), Skogen (10 kills) and Riddle (10 kills).  Biewer distributed 36 set assists.  Defensively, Barnesville was led by Skogen (25 digs), Strand (17 digs) and Gray (16 digs).