“We were excited to start conference play and knew that this match up with the Rebels would be a good battle and a good battle is exactly what it was,” said Pelican Rapids Head Coach Heidi Isaman.  “Serve receive was a little bit of a struggle for us earlier this week, so passing the ball and getting our offense in system was huge tonight and the girls really delivered.  Claudia Gurath did an amazing job of passing the ball tonight as they went after her on the service line to keep the ball away from our libero.  Claudia did a great job and made some huge plays on the offensive and defensive end tonight.”

The Vikings lost defensive specialist Hazel Haugrud to injury in the first set and middle blocker and setter Anna Roisum took a ball to the face in the second set. 

“Sophomore Allie Thompson did a good job coming off the bench for us to play our defensive specialist position,” said Coach Isaman, “and junior Zayli Arrow and 8th grader Kamryn Kirkwood did a great job of coming off the bench and doing their job until Roisum was able to come back into the game.  We got into a rhythm offensively in the second set as setter Ellie Welch did a great job moving the ball around and utilizing all her hitters."

Leaders for the Vikings were Roisum (14 kills, 9 assists, 1.5 block kills), Marie Backstrom (7 kills), Zayli Arrow (7 kills), Welch (5 kills, 8 digs, 23 assists, 1.5 block kills), Gurath (21 digs, 1.5 block kills, 2 kills), Haugrud (7 digs) and Morgan Korf (33 digs).

“I was very proud of these girls tonight for how well they persevered through many last minute lineup and position changes,” concluded Coach Isaman.  “They supported each other and did their job.”

The Vikings will host the Pelican Rapids Invitational Tournament on Saturday.