Volleyball Preview: Pius X Thunderbolts vs. Norris Titans
The Pius X Thunderbolts's road trip will continue as they head out to face the Norris Titans at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Both are strolling into their games after big wins in their previous games.
Pius X can't be too worried about heading out to take on Norris: they just beat Seward at home, who had been dominant on their own court up to that point. Pius X came out on top against Seward on Saturday by a score of 3-0 (the very same score they lost by in their prior game).
While Pius X won a shutout, things came down to the wire in the first set they played. The match finished with set scores of 25-22, 25-21, 25-21.
Emilia Reiling had a dynamite game for Pius X, getting 20 digs. Reiling has been hot for a while, having posted 13 or more digs the last 24 times she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Ava Markowski, who had ten digs, four kills, three blocks, and two aces.
Meanwhile, Norris waltzed into their contest on Saturday with 18 straight wins... but they left with 19. Everything went their way against the Bearcats as they made off with a 3-0 win.
The 3-0 score doesn't show just how dominant Norris was: they took every set by at least 11 points. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-8, 25-14, 25-8.
Norris can attribute much of their success to Rya Borer, who had 17 digs, and Zoe Rademacher, who had four aces.
Norris was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 15 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in four consecutive matchups.
Pius X's record is now 16-24. As for Norris, they pushed their record up to 35-1 with the victory, which was their 26th straight at home dating back to last season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Wednesday's match: Pius X has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 5.2 aces per game. However, it's not like Norris struggles in that department as they've been averaging 6.5. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Pius X suffered a grim 3-0 defeat to Norris in their previous matchup on Wednesday. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Borer, who had 28 digs. Now that Pius X knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
