Volleyball Game Preview: Elk River Elks vs. Maple Grove Crimson

The Elk River Elks will face off against the Maple Grove Crimson at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

Elk River is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Minnesota's top teams: Park Center, who was ranked 14th at the time (Elk River was ranked ninth). The Elks fell 3-1 to the Pirates on Monday.

While Elk River had to settle for second, they sure made a game of it, scoring at least 19 points in every set they played. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22.

Meanwhile, Maple Grove came up short against Rogers on Monday and fell 3-1. The defeat continues a trend for the Crimson in their meetings with the Royals: they've now lost three in a row.

The match finished with set scores of 25-10, 18-25, 25-17, 25-15.

Elk River will have to keep a close watch on Pengxue Xiong and Grady Reitmeier, a pair of players who had a big impact on Maple Grove's prior game. Xiong had six digs and three aces, while Reitmeier had six kills. Reitmeier has been hot recently, having posted five or more kills the last three times he's played.

Maple Grove's loss dropped their record down to 13-12. As for Elk River, they have been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four contests. That's put a noticeable dent in their 11-9 record this season.

Elk River beat Maple Grove 2-0 in their previous meeting back in April. Will the Elks repeat their success, or do the Crimson have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.