“The last time we faced the Nuggets was in the Sub-Section Championship match where we ended their season,” recalled Head Coach Megan Askegaard of the Trojans. “They are always a very well coached and disciplined team and they came in to our gym tonight ready to take us down. The girls had worked really hard the last few days in practice preparing for tonight’s matchup with the Nuggets and were eager to put together a solid match. We made a couple lineup changes tonight to help us fight the battle with the Nuggets. Lydia Braton came in off the bench to see some valuable court time and made some big plays up on the net in the middle. She has an aggressive style of play and likes to compete through the net. She played her role very well tonight and did an outstanding job on her first night starting a varsity game. We are definitely improving with every match we play and we just need more court time to get comfortable with our teammates and keep working on rebuilding and getting to where we need to be playing down the stretch.” 

Abby John and Lexi Hoeft led the attack at the net with 9 kills each, and Amelia Newell added 6 kills and 18 set assists.  John had 2 solo blocks and 2 block assists.  Sophie Frederick distributed 11 set assists, while Aubrey Hinsz and Macie Pauna contributed 4 kills apiece.  Serving leaders were Newell (19/20, 1 ace), Pauna (12/13), Frederick (11/12), Hoeft (10/10), Braton (10/10, 1 ace) and Kenadee Gray (17/20, 2 aces).  Defensively, Grayled with 21 digs, while Hoeft and Pauna added 15 each.

“Tonight I thought we serve received very well and allowed our setters to put up a hittable ball on the net,” added Coach Askegaard. “We just need to be confident in our arm swing and keep that 3rd ball in the court for a scoring opportunity or so that we can come back and play defense. Our block on the net with Lydia, Abby, Aubrey, and Amelia getting some big touches on their middles and strong outside hitters really allowed our back row passers of Kenadee, Macie, and Lexi to put the ball in playing position for the attackers. Amelia and Sophie moved our second ball into scoring position very well tonight. I was happy with their decision making on getting their ball into the hitter’s hands. Our communication will improve as we continue to play more matches together, however over all I thought we really put up a strong fight tonight against the Nuggets.”

Barnesville (0-3) has a busy week coming up with road matches at East Grand Forks on Tuesday and at Perham on Thursday, and a Saturday Tournament at Hawley.

The Nuggets (2-1) host Perham on Tuesday, play DGF in Glyndon on Thursday and host their home Tournament on Saturday.

No Hawley stats were reported.