“This was an intense match from the start with high energy from our side of the court,” said Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard. “We took control early and played with confidence early in the match. I am very pleased with how well we started out tonight. Perham battled back and came at us attacking hard on the net and we made some mistakes on defense that we didn’t make earlier in the night. We need to play with the same intensity from start to finish. In the third set we served them tough from the start with Kya Anderson getting us a nice lead early on in the set. We continued to play good defense even when our serve receive was a little off. We held onto the lead until Perham tied up the set 17-17. We traded points by playing good defense, however we did not attack to score points, but rather to just play safe. We tied again 22-22, 24-24, and back and forth not finishing the set. Perham took the set from us at the very end of a long battle. We were very flat and didn’t play with much confidence after losing this set and really struggled to make plays in set 4. We didn’t get into our plays. We trailed the entire set and had a tough time gaining momentum.  We won the flip for set 5 and chose the serve. Elora Passa earned her 1,000 kill in her first attack in this set. Her first kill as a varsity player came back in 2014 as an 8th grader vs. Frazee. The game was tight from the start with both teams playing to win and fighting back and forth for every point. The set was tied early on before Kya took us from 4-4 to 7-4 before Perham was able to get a side out against our tough defense and Elora attacking up in the front row. We were able to get our middles the ball when Elora went to the backrow and Claire Meyer did an outstanding job getting in to attack after putting up a nice block. Our defense was relentless as we picked up all balls that came to our side. Game was tied back up at 12-12 before Kimberly Maesse went back to the serving line to finish off the night. Very pleased with how well we played tonight and how hard the girls fought back for the win.”

Passa finished with 20 kills, 13 assists, 14 digs and a perfect 17-for-17 serving night. Meyer (10 kills, 3 aces, 5 blocks), Emily Condon (8 kills, 25/26 serving, 4 aces, 22 digs), Lauren Halverson (5 kills, 3 digs, 2 solo blocks), Samantha Passa (5 kills, 12 digs, 3 blocks), Maesse (30 set assists, 15/15 serving, 2 aces, 9 digs) and Anderson (26/29 serving, 2 aces, 42 digs) were the other leaders on the court for the Trojans. 

Barnesville finishes the regular season 21-6 with a 7-0 HOL mark and a perfect 10-0 record against section opponents. They will carry a five match winning streak into the post season.

Perham finishes 17-10 on the season and as runners-up in the HOL with their only conference loss coming to the Trojans.