“That was a fun one last night,” exclaimed Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegard.  “It was a great tournament atmosphere in Pelican Rapids last night as we were having a repeat sub-section matchup from last year. The girls were more than ready to play and you could feel their energy all around them. The first set had both of us really battling up on the net to get things rolling when Sydney Strand gave us a little boost from the back row with some aggressive serving and our offense up on the net playing hard. We moved the ball well in this first set and gave all of our hitters the opportunity to make things happen. Rumley Biewer was also able to find some success at the serving line with her defense behind her to give her team a 16-12 lead before a blocking error on the net ended our run. Hawley kept pushing back when the Trojans were up 21-16 Hawley used their second timeout of the night and came out with a side out after an attacking error by Barnesville. Both teams really battled it out down the stretch tied 24-24, when Kenzie Skogen laid down a nice kill point followed by her serving the ball in the court and allowing Emily Smith to come up with a solo block to end the first set against the Nuggets.”

Askegard continued, “Our blocking was on point to start the second set and the defense in the backrow was moving very well to pick up many balls that the Nuggets were sending our direction. Our strong serving was partial credit to making the Nuggets play out of system for a great part of the set. We positioned our first ball very well tonight in all sets to keep them always anticipating where that next ball was coming to. Our servers were able to push a couple points at a time before the Nuggets were able to come up with a side out. We took the lead 14-9 with a nice kill in the middle from Emily Smith. Rumley proved herself to be more of an offensive threat tonight which really opened things up for our offense.”

Coach Askegard on the third set loss, “Volleyball wouldn’t be volleyball without the shift in momentum from all directions. We started off set 3 on fire with an early 5-1 lead from a couple ace serves from Skogen and Smith. We knew Hawley would continue to battle back and forth with us and they were able to tie the set up at 9-9 with a well-placed ball in our defense. We seemed to be a little more back on our heels than I would have liked in the middle of this set. We really allowed them to sneak back into to this set when we needed to make our move. Steer and Johnson are tough players to defend up in the front row and they really played aggressively in the middle of this set. We tied the set at 19 before Hawley took the lead from us after a blocking error and a defensive error in our backrow.”

Here is her fourth set analysis, “Moving into the 4th set and what we were hoping would be the final set, Rumley started her serving off with an ace serve that gave us an early 3-0 before Hawley scored on a tip ball at our setter. We continued to move our ball well, finding Belle Peterson out on the outside and opening things up for our middles to see the court more. Rumley had a nice kill up on the net that sent Amelia Newell back serving 4 points and 1 ace serve. Our lead pulled away when we were able to put the ball in play and work hard as a defensive unit to string a couple points together before Hawley was able to side out. We played very in control in this fourth set and really worked hard to make sure we were working on a strong start and finish. We played very smart and executed things extremely well tonight. We are definitely playing the style of volleyball we need to be at this point of the season. It was been very fun to watch and coach. These girls have worked extremely hard and you can see things really starting to fall into place for them. What a terrific group of senior leaders on and off the court. Our bench was phenomenal tonight. They were in to each and every play and that makes a huge impact on how your team performs out of the court.”

Statistical leaders for the Trojans were Strand (17/17 serving, 17 digs), Biewer (29 set assists, 16/17 serving, 1 ace, 1 block assist, 7 kills), Skogen (19/19 serving, 2 aces, 6 kills, 7 digs, 2 block assists), Newell (18/18 serving, 2 aces, 4 digs, 3 kills), Smith (13/14 serving, 1 ace, 10 kills, 4 digs, 1 solo block, 3 block assists), Emily Riddle (10 kills, 2 solo blocks, 2 block assists), Peterson (7 kills, 2 solo blocks, 1 block assist) and Kenadee Gray (9/10 serving, 4 digs, 2 kills).