Askegaard continued, “In the first set we were pretty quiet and had a hard time getting into system and running our offense. We had some breakdowns in our communication that really hurt us. We need to be confident in our abilities and play through our mistakes. I was proud of how well we battled back and really got after it on defense in the second set. Elisabeth Mulcahy came in and gave us a nice spark at the serving line. That was the run we needed to get us back on top. We made a few too many errors on our 3rd ball to allow the Cougars back in to take control of the second set. We really saw what we were capable of doing in this second set and it was great to see just how well we can play at times, we just needed to finish and it could have really changed the momentum of the match tonight. Moving into the 3rd set, we continued to serve receive pass very well from some tough serving Cougars.”

Leaders for the Trojans were Lexi Hoeft (7 kills, 20 digs, 6/6 serving), Macie Pauna (6 kills, 6/6 serving, 11 digs), Abby John (5 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 8/9 serving), Amelia Newell (4 kills, 18 set assists, 9 digs, 11/12 serving, 1 ace, 1 block assist), Elisabeth Mulcahy (14/15 serving, 2 aces, 9 digs), and Kenadee Gray (7/7 serving, 18 digs).

“We will continue to improve with every match and get our rotation all figured out,” said Coach Askegaard. “We have great numbers and plenty of talent on our bench to keep building with each and every set. This game is a marathon and not a sprint to the finish. We are back to the grind today to prepare for a tough DL team on Thursday.”