Senior Ellie Welch started the Vikings off with a strong serving run and junior Anna Roisum hit the ball very well in the 25-20 first set win.  “We knew we needed to win this game at the service line and at the net and the girls did a good job of making those 2 areas a priority,” noted Isaman.

Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard weighed in on the start of the match, “We didn’t have a strong start at the beginning of the match. We made some key mistakes in the first set and just didn’t seem like we were ready to hit the floor and compete. We were back on our heels and allowed the Vikings to attack us too much in the start. In the second set we came out with more intensity and were more aggressive in our attack. Our blockers did a great job making some nice adjustments up in the front row and helped out the backcourt by getting to the ball first. Aubryn Hinsz had a couple nice back to back kills on the outside that gave us a nice lead in the start of the second set (12-5). We quickly made some critical errors on defense and allowed the Vikings to get right back into the set. (13-12).  We continued to pass well out of serve receive and put away the ball on the net and worked together as a team to get the needed win in the second set. 

Isaman assessed the set 2 loss this way, “the Trojans changed up their game and went to a lot of tips and off paced balls.  We had a hard time defending their short game and the Trojans found many open spots on our court.  The Vikings did not back down however at the net and continued to stay aggressive.  Pin hitters Marie Backstrom and Zayla Arrow had a few big kills for us to close the gap but it was not enough to get the win.”

“Set 3 we knew we need to improve our front row defense and read the short ball better and we made some adjustments,” continued Coach Isaman.  “We also knew we needed to stay in system and continue being aggressive at the net.  Defensive specialists Morgan Korf and Claudia Gurath did an amazing job passing the ball for us tonight to give our setters good opportunities to utilize all our hitters.  We started set 3 very strong with a nice serving run by Ellie Welch again and libero Morgan Korf was outstanding with digging up everything the Trojans threw at us.  The Trojans, however, had a big 5 point run of their own and we made a few too many errors to bring the score within 3, but setters/middle hitters Anna Roisum and Ellie Welch did a good job connecting with each other again and the Vikings won set 3.”

“In the 3rd set we found ourselves not playing with as much momentum as we were hoping to carry over after picking up a needed win in the second,” noted Coach Askegaard of the Trojans. “We gave up 7 points in the middle when we could not pass or put away a 3rd ball kill. We have to move out of serve receive quicker and battle back when we need a stop. Our defense came back and went to work when we were trailing 8-16, however we tied the set at 19 but we couldn’t push to the end point.  The girls knew they needed to go leave it all on the court in set 4 or we would be going home. Our passing was on and we were able to run our middles in our offense tonight when they were killing the ball. Our serving was tough in this set and our defense in the backcourt worked hard to pick up all the balls we could get our hands on. We were up 12-10 before Aubryn went back to the serving line and put the 1st ball in and then Lexi Hoeft and Kenadee Gray worked to keep the ball in our hands. We were able to extend our lead to 17-11 before the Vikings found a hole in the defense. We made a couple errors and allowed Pelican to creep back in to close that large gap. However, our attack and defensive plays held strong to the finish.”

“Set 4 we started slower and struggled getting ourselves in system,” added Isaman.  “This caused a little too much panic on the court and we had some ball control issues.  We could not get a solid run going and the Trojans took advantage. They went back to hitting the ball well and we were just a bit late on the block coming from out of system.  The Trojans took set 4 to square the match.”  

Askegaard had this recap on the final set, “Moving into a quick set five we knew we needed to really play a clean set and eliminate our mistakes. We struggled early moving our feet and picking up balls. The girls played hard point for point, we were just down too much at the start where we couldn’t afford to make any more mistakes. We made some big plays on the net and really put the ball down hard for the kill, the Vikings just always seemed to have an answer.” 

As for set 5, Isaman concluded, “the girls were hungry for the win and went out with confidence.  Freshman Ari Hovland did a great job stepping up to the pressure as they were targeting her with the serve.  Junior Grace Backstrom got the gym rolling with a monster kill on the back side and we got in the rotation we wanted to be in with Anna Roisum in the front row.  Setter Ellie Welch did a great job feeding Anna the ball and the Vikings pulled off the win with a score of 15-10.  This was a great back and forth battle all night between these two teams with amazing energy in the gym from both communities.”

Leaders for the Vikings were Roisum (19 kills, 16 assists, 1 ace, 19 digs, 1.5 block kills), Welch (21 assists, 10 kills, 9 digs, 2 aces), Backstrom (6 kills, 12 digs), Arrow (6 kills, 1 block kill), Korf (48 digs, 1 ace), Gurath (22 digs, 5 kills) and Hovland (13 digs).

Barnesville was led by Abby John (13 kills, 4 solo blocks, 2 block assists), Amelia Newell (8 kills, 20/20 serving, 2 aces, 21 set assists, 10 digs), Hinsz (8 kills, 19/19 serving, 1 solo block), Hoeft (7 kills, 10/12 serving, 1 ace, 25 digs, 2 solo blocks), Paige Braton (6 kills, 3 digs), Lydia Braton (15/16 serving, 4 digs, 2 block assists), Gray (17/19 serving, 3 aces, 28 digs), Elizabeth Mulcahy (14/15 serving, 2 aces, 21 digs) and Sophie Frederick (18 set assists).

The Vikings will travel to Hawley on Tuesday and then to Fergus Falls on Thursday for a tournament to end the regular season before we get final seeding for play offs the following week. 

Barnesville will close out their regular season schedule with a home Heart O’ Lakes Conference match against the Frazee Hornets.