The Atlantic Trojans volleyball team took the court on Monday with the hopes of taking home a conference win. The group played the Clarinda Cardinals in their first home dual.

Clarinda came to town with a record of 4-7, which includes two conference wins and two conference losses. The Trojans entered the match 6-14, as they have played in many tournaments against scrappy schools. Atlantic hoped to use their experience together to best Clarinda and take the W.

To kick off the night, the JV squad attempted to avenge their loss to the Cardinals from their previous meeting. The Trojans were right behind the Cardinals, but couldn’t quite catch up in the first set. Then, freshman Aspen Niklasen got behind the line to serve. She hit four successful serves, and the Trojan team was right behind her. The group earned five straight points and put themselves in the lead at 18-16, and Clarinda on the defense. This sudden shift in momentum caused Clarinda to call a timeout. After the timeout, Niklasen continued to serve, and she hit two more solid serves before Clarinda rallied back and earned their first point in eight possessions.

Though the Trojans had regained the lead, the Cardinals came out on top in the first set, 25-23. The JV team attempted to push the match to a necessary third set, but came up short, as they lost the second set 25-19.

The JV girls totaled nine kills through two sets, with sophomore Maycie Waters leading the pack with four. Also, the team had four aces, three of which belonged to junior Emma Templeton.

After JV, the varsity team suited up to compete with Clarinda. The girls started the first set off strong, but a few communication errors between teammates resulted in Atlantic dropping the first set 25-14. During the second set, the Trojans were always with Clarinda. The team switched from offense to defense with fluidity. The group played well but dropped the second set 25-19. In the third set, Atlantic played hard with successful hitting. Atlantic tried to nudge the match to another set. The Trojans were unsuccessful and dropped the set 25-16.

Through the three set match, both the Trojans’ offense and defense had strength. On the offensive, the Trojans had 18 kills and four aces. As for defense, the team had four blocks and an impressive 44 digs. Almost every girl on the team kept the ball in play with a dig, while libero Kenzie Waters led the group with 12.

The team will travel to Harlan on Thursday. Currently, Harlan is the 6th best team in the Hawkeye 10 conference.