Volleyball Game Preview: East Wake Academy Eagles vs. Gates County Red Barons

The East Wake Academy Eagles will face off against the Gates County Red Barons at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

East Wake Academy won the last time they faced Warren County and Avery Schmidt did her part to make sure it happened again. East Wake Academy put the hurt on Warren County with a sharp 3-0 win on Tuesday thanks in part to Schmidt, who had 26 assists and eight digs. She has been hot recently, having posted 17 or more assists the last four times she's played.

Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: East Wake Academy took every set by at least 12 points. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-12, 25-4, 25-13.

Sydney Bizub

Serving Aces

10/21/25 @ Warren County	6
10/18/25 vs American Leadership Academy-Johnston	4
10/13/25 @ Roxboro Community	1
10/09/25 vs Neuse Charter	3
10/06/25 @ Neuse Charter	6

East Wake Academy's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Sydney Bizub, who had six aces and one assist, and Emma Collier, who had six aces. That's the most aces Bizub has posted over her last five matches.

They weren't the only good servers: East Wake Academy was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 17 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in eight consecutive contests.

Roxboro Community typically has all the answers at home, but on Tuesday Gates County proved too difficult a challenge. They were the clear victors by a 3-0 margin over the Bulldogs. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Red Barons.

East Wake Academy's victory bumped their record up to 16-9. As for Gates County, their win bumped their record up to 15-8.