The Thunder traveled to Morris on Saturday for a 10-team tournament. The girls played well and ended up taking fourth place.

The first match of pool play was against Sauk Centre. The girls fought hard but lost 1-2 (15-25, 29-27, 12-15).

The girls responded well by defeating the next three teams in their pool play. They defeated Wilmot, S.D., 2-0 (25-17, 25-15), Morris Area 2-0 (25-16, 25-14), and Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 2-0 (25-18, 25-19).

By going 3-1 in their pool, the girls were able to play for the third place match. The team opposing them was St. Cloud Apollo. The girls fought hard but came out flat falling 1-2 (16-25, 25-23, 11-15).

“We came out flat and made too many mistakes to beat a good St. Cloud Apollo program,” coach Brad Hollenhorst said. “They are a three-A school used to some good competition and we gave them way too many chances to earn points.”

The struggles continue to come on the attacking errors and mental mistakes happening at critical times. “We have a lot of experience on the court and we just need to realize that if we clean up the mistakes and play sound fundamental volleyball, we’ll be tough to beat,” coach  Hollenhorst said.

The Thunder served quite well on the day finishing with 41 ace serves.

Stats from the tournament:
Lesley Roe - 8 ace serves, 8 kills, 54 set assists, 29 digs
Emily Jansen - 9 ace serves, 7 kills, 29 set assists, 14 digs
Jenna Langer - 38 kills, 38 digs, 7 blocks
Sara Roe - 4 ace serves, 14 kills, 35 digs
Megan Pohlmann - 5 ace serves, 19 kills, 32 digs

The Thunder will have a busy week with a match against Royalton Thursday and the Sauk Rapids Invitational Saturday.

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