“We had a very slow start to the first match and really had a difficult time getting into our system,” said Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard. “Serve receive was a challenge for us to start the first set and we had too many balls that were off the net and made it challenging to put over the net in a scoring position. We made some gains, however, the EGF offense was always on the attack and we were stuck playing too much defense in this first set.”

Going into set 2 the Trojans made some adjustments in their defense in the back row and up on the net with their block. Abby John and Aubrey Hinsz did a nice job getting some touches upfront to slow the hard hit ball down. “The girls made some great plays on defense and that really got our offense into sync,” noted Coach Askegaard.  “Amelia Newell and Sophie Frederick were able to get our middles- Abby and Lydia Braton into the offense when we could set them the ball. Amelia had a great serving run down the stretch but a couple mistakes close to the end caused us to come up a little short. Macie Pauna and Lexi Hoeft had a great deal of action on the outside and picked up some hard hit balls in the backcourt. Lexi came up with some well-placed balls up on the net. Kenadee Gray passed well out of serve receive for us tonight and made some big hustle plays.” 

The 3rd set saw Barnesville come out with the momentum and wanting to keep the match alive. Askegaard said, “We were aggressive on offense and played tough hustle defense. Aubryn had a great night attacking on the right side and had some big kills from the pin. She was able to swing and take out the setter on the EGF side and force them to play without her on the second ball. The girls played hard start to finish and battled hard all the way to the end, forcing a fourth set.”

The Trojans were not aggressive to start the first few points off in the fourth set. “We needed to come out with the momentum and continue to play strong all the way through,” commented Coach Askegaard. “We still have quite a few peaks and valleys in our matches and we need to start finding some consistency. The girls are improving greatly with each and every match. We are going to continue to be patient and work hard each day to keep raising the bar.” 

Stat leaders were Hinsz (9 kills, 3 digs), Hoeft (9 kills, 14 digs), John (6 kills, 7 solo blocks), Pauna (4 kills, 19/19 serving, 2 aces, 11 digs), Newell (15 set assists, 20/21 serving, 4 aces, 9 digs, 3 kills, 1 solo block, 2 block assists), Frederick (11 set assists, 10/10 serving, 7 digs), Gray (11/12 serving, 15 digs) and Braton (9/9 serving, 1 ace, 3 digs, 2 block assists).

Barnesville will travel to Perham on Thursday for an HOL matchup on pink night.