Volleyball Game Preview: Sierra Vista Mountain Lions vs. Palo Verde Panthers

Sierra Vista hasn't had much luck against Palo Verde recently, but that could start to change on Tuesday. The Mountain Lions will face off against the Panthers at 6:00 p.m.

Sierra Vista is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Nevada's top teams: Centennial, who was ranked fourth at the time (Sierra Vista was ranked 12th). The Mountain Lions took a 3-1 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Bulldogs on Thursday. The Mountain Lions' loss continues a trend for the squad, making it three in a row.

The 3-1 doesn't really show just how close this match was: all the sets Sierra Vista lost were decided by three points or less. The final score came out to 25-22, 17-25, 29-27, 25-22.

Meanwhile, Palo Verde had already won three in a row and they went ahead and made it four on Thursday. They put the hurt on the Skyhawks with a sharp 3-0 win.

Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Palo Verde took every set by at least ten points. The match finished with set scores of 25-11, 25-14, 25-15.

Sierra Vista's defeat dropped their record down to 18-16. As for Palo Verde, their victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 17-8.

Sierra Vista came up short against Palo Verde in their previous meeting back in March, falling 2-0. Can the Mountain Lions avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.