Coach Askegaard filed this report on set 1: “Our mistakes in the first set were from our 3rd ball errors. We pushed too many balls into the net on the 3rd contact for as hard as we were working on our passing and setting up to our attackers. We were tied up early in the set and traded points at 8 and 9 before the Braves rallied and took a 10-14 lead that still lasted until points 12-17 before Abby John put down a powerful kill in the middle. Strong serving from Macie Pauna and Kenadee Gray allowed us to push the match up to 19-19 behind some nice digs in the backcourt from the Left and Middles. We made it through the first set with some big defensive plays, however we really needed to clean up our 3rd contacts moving into the second set.” 

Askegaard continued, “Abby found the ball in the middle early in the second set and really put it to the floor. We were able to nicely run our offense with our serve receive passers doing a great job putting us up and on the net in system. Amelia Newell and Sophie Frederick were able to find their hitters at the pins and in the middle when that ball was on the net. We continued to serve the ball well and play great defense throughout the set.” 

Askegaard had these comments on the third set: “Moving into what we were hoping was going to be the final set of the night we started off trailing 0-3 before we snuck in a 3rd contact for the kill. We quickly made up our deficit with Kenadee back at the serving line pushing for points and her defense backing her. The set was tied up 4-4 before the Braves found a hole in our backcourt. Aubryn Hinsz served up a couple nice points to force the Braves into a timeout. The block up on the net with Lydia Braton and Lexi Hoeft did an outstanding job and helped us push our lead to 12-5. We strung some nice serving runs together in this 3rd set. Ava Foster came in off the bench and put the ball into the playing court with the defense holding strong to keep the possession. The 3rd set was a solid team effort tonight with some nice plays made by the Lady Trojans. It was a fun win on parent’s night.”

Leaders on the court were John (10 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist), Hoeft (10 kills, 3 solo blocks, 4 digs), Newell (15 set assists, 11/12 serving, 1 ace, 5 digs), Frederick (9 set assists), Gray (9 digs, 15/15 serving, 4 aces), Pauna 3 kills, 13/14 serving, 3 digs), Braton (4 kills, 7/7 serving, 1 solo block) and Hinsz (14/15 serving, 1 block assist, 1 kill).

Barnesville (7-12) will compete in the Perham Tournament on Saturday.