FRAZEE — Pelican Rapids ended their regular season run Thursday on the road falling in five sets to the Hornets 23-25, 25-15, 25-18, 20-25 and 9-15.
The Vikings started Set 1 a little shaky as they had a hard time finding their offensive rhythm, however, Tori Stephenson hit the ball well adding a few big kills but hitting and blocking errors were too much for Pelican Rapids to overcome as they fell in the first set 25-23.
In the second set the Vikings showed maturity by rebalancing and coming out more aggressive giving their setter Sophia Paulson many offensive options.
“We slowly got more and more aggressive and our hitters got into a rhythm with Sophia,” said Vikings head coach Heidi Isaman. “Outside hitter Kelsey Isaman did a great job of finding the open spots on the court and middle hitter Anna Roisum started to contribute more offensively to balance out our offense.”
After controlling the pace of Set 2 from its onset the Vikings were able to finish on top 25-15.
In Set 3 Pelican Rapids carried the momentum over from the previous set with middle hitter Ellie Welch playing strong at the net attacking some overpasses given by the Hornets. Welch had a nice stretch of four kills in a row while Kelsey Isaman had a big stretch of six kills in a row, coupled with big digs by Stephenson and Paulson getting the ball where it needed to be the Vikings were able to take the lead in the match winning the set 25-18.
In the fourth set the Vikings unraveled after the Hornets made some adjustments and came out attacking from the right side racking up a 7-1 lead. Pelican Rapids would try to play catch up but they struggled with short serve receives and several hitting and serving errors which proved too much to overcome as they dropped the set 25-20.
In the final set of the evening the Vikings showed promise picking up serve receives and passing the ball well but too many hitting errors caused the scoring gap to widen giving the Hornets unearned points which led to Frazee closing out the set 15-9 to end the matchup.
“Overall the Vikings competed hard all night in a good back-and-forth battle that had great energy in the gym. We had some great execution and defense tonight but in the end too many hitting errors and not staying aggressive enough was our struggle,” said Vikings head coach Heidi Isaman. “I was proud of how these girls competed tonight and how they worked together as a team all night.”
On Thursday the Vikings travel to Fergus Falls to take part in the annual Blocktoberfest tournament starting at 9 a.m.