“The first set tonight was huge for the Trojans as it was our first win in the first set,” said Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard. “We led the entire first set with credit to some strong serving by the Trojans. The girls put the ball in play tonight and made it difficult for the Perham passers to set up their offense. The Yellowjackets also had a great deal of serving errors that cost them 7 points early in the set. Getting the momentum on our side to kick off the night was very important for us tonight. We played very scrappy defense in the backcourt and really worked to eliminate our mistakes out on the playing court.” 

Coach Askegaard continued, “We were hoping to carry that intensity from getting that first set into the second set, however, we found ourselves making more errors on our 3rd contacts and on our block at the net. Perham was playing a much cleaner game and not making nearly the mistakes that they did in the first set. We needed to clean up our defense and make sure that we were stopped on defense when Perham was attacking. Willow Thiel and Jaden Hackel attack the ball very well for the Jackets. They are hard to stop on defense when they get a perfectly set ball. Set two was too many errors that were under our own control. 

“Moving into the 3rd set, we battle back after the second set and came out playing very hard and with great intensity. We made some great hustle plays and really picked away at some holes on the court. We traded points back and forth with the Jackets for the duration of the set. There weren’t any long rallies by either side just some great defensive plays being made on some hard hit balls. Abby John found her groove and put the ball away when she was up in the front row. Sophie Frederick and Amelia Newell did a nice job moving the second ball across the net. We utilized the free ball and came in attacking from all areas. We were tied up at 18-18 before Lydia Braton went back to the serving line and gave us a nice lead 21-18 before Perham slammed a ball on our side. We battled with Abby and Aubryn Hinsz up at the net and Kenadee Gray and Lexi Hoeft getting big touches on some hard hit balls. We battled hard down the stretch, but just came up a little short. 

“The fourth set had many errors at the start and you could see that we weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be to start off the set. It’s hard when you know that this set is on the line and you need to get it. Perham was definitely on the attack. We found ourselves playing a great deal of defense and just a little slow on the offensive side of things. We were down 11-20 before Amelia Newell came up with a big kill to give us the serve back. We had the hard hit ball by the Jackets come through our block and we were back in serve receive again before Lydia Braton put the ball away and then went back to the serving line. She made a great run down the stretch with some big plays from her teammates when we were down 13-24. The girls didn’t just quit down the stretch, but kept battling back and forth with the Jackets. I am proud of how hard we can play at times when points are on the line. We need to be more consistent and work hard for every possession. The girls are learning and we are definitely making some big gains in our style of play. The girls work hard each and every day and they will see the rewards here shortly, we just need to stay patient. We are off to Hawley Saturday for a tournament.”

Stat leaders for the Trojans were John (9 kills, 1 solo block), Hoeft (8 kill, 13/14 serving, 1 ace, 18 digs), Braton (5 kills, 16/17 serving, 1 ace, 6 digs), Newell (4 kills, 15 assists, 13/13 serving, 1 ace, 4 digs), Gray (14/14 serving, 22 digs) and Frederick (11 digs, 8/9 serving, 11 assists).

No Perham stats were reported.