The Vikings took on a tough WCA team first who ended up getting 2nd in the entire tournament.  The Vikings did a good job serving aggressively to slow down the Knight offense and played tough at the net against their many weapons. Our blockers did a great job getting quality touches on their powerful hitters to give our back row players a good chance do their job defensively.  The Vikings also hit the ball well to have a great back and forth battle.  In the end the Knights had a 2 runs of 4 points each that helped them increase the gap in both sets to get the win and the Vikings lost both tight sets 18-25 and 23-25.  

Next round the Vikings took on a powerful Detroit Lakes team that was also favored to win the tournament.  Detroit Lakes has good size with powerful outside hitters, big blockers, and a very talented setter.  The Vikings came out strong against the Lakers and our middle hitters Anna Roisum and Ellie Welch came ready to hit.  Senior Marie Backstrom had a huge 7 point run at the service line and libero Morgan Korf made a few huge plays for us to keep our offense going.  Outside hitter and defensive specialist Claudia Gurath did a great job of passing the ball and seeing the court on offense while right side hitter Grace Backstrom added a few big kills for us.  The Vikings won an exciting set 1 25-23.  Set 2 our fatigue from 3 intense sets started to set in and our passing struggled to get our offense in system again.  Detroit Lakes took advantage and their offense got in a rhythm.  We got a little late on our block and the Lakers took advantage and we lost set 2 12-25.  Set 3 was a back and forth battle to start and we hung right with them until the Lakers went on a 6 point run where we could not get ourselves in system and the Lakers won the set 15-8.  

We immediately went into the 3rd round of pool play with no break taking on Win-E-Mac. The Vikings served well but once again started slow with not passing very well to get our offense going.  We made a lot of errors and Win-E-Mac took advantage.  The Vikings we down 9-16 when sophomore Morgan Korf got on the service line and went on a 6 point run of our own.  Setters and middle hitters Ellie Welch and Anna Roisum started to connect with each other better offensively and the Vikings had a great comeback to win set 1 25-20.  Set 2 was pretty much a repeat where we made too many errors to start the game and let a few balls drop defensively.  Senior Torie Jugovich came off the bench to give us a 4 point run on the service line to close the gap we had made.  Outside hitter Marie Backstrom and right side hitter Zayla Arrow got a few big kills for us to turn the momentum our way and libero Morgan Korf read the ball very well to keep us in system.  The Vikings fought back from behind again to win a tight set 2 26-24.

After taking 3rd place in our pool we moved onto the Bronze tournament bracket with Hillcrest, Lake of the Woods, and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley. After getting a much needed but very lengthy break while the other pools were finishing up and they were getting brackets organized the Vikings were anxious to start bracket play.  The Vikings matched up with the powerful Hillcrest first which we had already played twice in the season. Both match ups had been tight battles with Hillcrest coming out on top at the Pelican tournament and the Vikings winning the season match up.  I was super proud of how strong our girls came out to play this game.  Our servers did a great job of making their passers work to get their offense going and our blockers were very strong at the net.  Morgan Korf, Marie Backstrom, and Ellie Welch all had big runs on the service line and Ellie Welch started hit the ball extremely well especially in set 1.  Then middle hitter Anna Roisum got in on the action and also hit the ball very well. Freshman Ari Hovland was a key factor in defending the short ball for us and with her serve receive and the Vikings won both sets 25-14 and a back and forth set 2 battle with a score of 30-28.

The girls were so tired after the long day and intense battle they just finished with Hillcrest but went immediately to the championship game of their bracket with Lake of the Woods.  We have never matched up with Lake of the Woods before and did not know what to expect but soon realized they had a very strong middle hitter that we need to figure out a way to slow down and most importantly we just needed to find a way to push through the fatigue of the day and get the job done.  The Vikings lost set 1 with some hitting and serving errors and our blockers struggled getting quality touches at the net. We also did not pass as well as we usually do and did not get our offense in the rhythm we needed.  The Vikings lost a close set 1 with a score of 21-25.  Set 2 we knew we just needed to push through and dig deep and the Vikings cleaned up their game.  Senior Marie Backstrom definitely found some gas left in the tank and hit the ball very well to give us some huge kills on the outside of the court.  Setters Anna Roisum and Ellie Welch worked hard to try and find our hitters and give them the ball where we knew we could score. Ellie Welch also made some huge plays at the net and defensive specialist Cluadia Gurath read the ball well defensively.  The Vikings dug deep and pulled out the win with winning the next 2 sets 27-25 and 18-16.  After leaving the gym after being there for 9 hours I was so proud of how these girls finished with everything they had left in them.  It was a great way to build our confidence going to section post season play next week.

The Vikings earned the 7th seed in section 8AA so they will be hosting the Barnesville Trojans on Wednesday, October 25.