Volleyball Preview: Santa Fe Raiders vs. Merritt Island Mustangs
The Santa Fe Raiders will venture away from home to face off against the Merritt Island Mustangs at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Santa Fe sitting on three straight wins and Merritt Island on four.
Santa Fe is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Wednesday. They walked away with a 3-1 victory over Satellite.
Santa Fe was dominant in they sets they won, taking each by at least ten points. The final score came out to 17-25, 25-11, 25-15, 25-14.
Gracyn Marshall had a dynamite game for Santa Fe, getting 17 digs, five kills, and three aces. Marshall has been hot recently, having posted three or more aces the last three times she's played. Morgan Lawson was another key player, getting five digs and two aces.
Santa Fe was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 16 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least 14 aces in three consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, Merritt Island got the win against Tavares on Wednesday by a conclusive 3-0.
The match finished with set scores of 25-13, 25-18, 25-14.
Merritt Island got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Amber Ives out in front who had five aces. The dominant performance gave Ives a new career-high in aces.
Santa Fe has been performing well recently as they've won 15 of their last 19 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 20-7 record this season. As for Merritt Island, their victory was their 13th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 22-5.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Saturday's game: Santa Fe has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 7.2 aces per game. However, it's not like Merritt Island struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.4. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Santa Fe took their win against Merritt Island when the teams last played back in September of 2021 by a conclusive 3-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Santa Fe since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
