Volleyball Game Preview: Freedom Patriots vs. Pocono Mountain West Panthers

Freedom is a perfect 3-0 against Pocono Mountain West since April of 2021 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Wednesday. The Patriots will be playing at home against the Panthers at 5:00 p.m. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Freedom is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Pennsylvania's top teams: Nazareth Area, who was ranked 18th at the time (Freedom was ranked 13th). The Patriots blew past the Blue Eagles 3-0 on Tuesday. The win was familiar territory for the Patriots, who have now won four contests in a row.

Freedom not only won, but also showed off some consistency: they kept Nazareth Area between 14 and 17 points across their sets. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-14, 25-17, 25-14.

Joe Braun

Assists

04/15/25 vs Nazareth Area	18
04/14/25 @ William Allen	39
04/10/25 vs Pocono Mountain East	37
04/08/25 @ Easton Area	43
04/02/25 vs Whitehall	36
+ 20 more games

Joe Braun and Ayden Willman were among the main playmakers for Freedom as the former had six digs and one block and the latter had seven kills, five digs, and three blocks. Braun is also on a roll when it comes to assists, as he's now posted 12 or more in each of the last 25 games he's played dating back to last season. Another player making a difference was Adrinder Gill, who had six digs and three aces.

Meanwhile, it was a proper cat-fight when Pocono Mountain West faced off against Lincoln Leadership Academy on Tuesday. The Panthers put the hurt on the Lions with a sharp 3-0 victory. The Panthers haven't had any issues with the Lions recently, as the game was their third consecutive win against them.

The match finished with set scores of 25-18, 25-16, 25-21.

Pocono Mountain West's victory bumped their record up to 3-7. As for Freedom, their win bumped their record up to 13-2.

Freedom took their victory against Pocono Mountain West when the teams last played back in April of 2024 by a conclusive 3-0 score. Will the Patriots repeat their success, or do the Panthers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.