“The match obviously didn’t end the way we had planned, but what a hard fought battle from my girls,” said Barnesville Head Coach Megan Askegaard. “They don’t just roll over and give up, but they really like to fight hard for every point. We stepped up our defense and eliminated our mistakes that we made from nerves from the first two sets to make it a great match between 2 phenomenal teams. New York Mills came at us from all angles and was aggressive on and off the net. We had a difficult time getting a block on their hitters, however, our defense has been our driving force all season. The plays back and forth between both teams was great volleyball. Our leadership from our upperclassmen to the younger players that just come out to play their best is outstanding.”  

The lady Trojans were led by Elora Passa (18 kills, 10 set assists, 12/13 serving, 2 aces, 2 blocks, 26 digs), Claire Meyer (9 kills, 13/13 serving, 1 ace), Emily Condon (4 kills, 13/14 serving, 25 digs), Kimberly Maesse (16 set assists, 18/18 serving, 3 aces, 15 digs), Samantha Passa (11/11 serving, 2 aces, 19 digs) and Kya Anderson (16/16 serving, 35 digs). 

“After dropping set one (quickly) and set two, we made a tremendous run after trailing in set 3, 9-14, before we made a strong push on offense with our defense behind us,” noted Askegaard. “We were still trailing 12-16 before we tied the score at 18-18 and then continued to battle point for point with them until we put the game away.  We used that momentum as our driving force in the last couple sets to really work together to get the W. We made a great game out of set 4 and really took the Eagles by surprise with how our first couple matches had gone. Our tough backrow defense picked up many balls- Emily, Kya and Sam did an outstanding job. Our setters Kim and Elora both worked well together to put the ball up in their hitters hands. Elora had a nice match attacking and blocking on the net and Claire was a huge asset helping to spread apart their defense and make them decide where we were going to set the ball.” 

As a team Barnesville was successful on 83-of-85 serves, serving up a total of 8 aces in the match. The loss puts the Trojans final record at 23-7.  

“New York Mills is a fundamentally sound team with attackers that really attack constantly,” concluded Coach Askegaard. “They had a setter who is difficult to read who also liked to attack us and we were caught off guard a couple times. We fought the good fight tonight, but just came up a little shorthanded. So proud of this team and their determination over the course of this season. We had an amazing one to say the least. We left if all out on the court and played with heart!” 

New York Mills will now play Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley for the Section 6A title on Saturday at 7:00pm in Fergus Falls.