Volleyball Preview: West Branch Warriors vs. Alliance Aviators
West Branch is 9-1 against Alliance since September of 2020, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Thursday. The West Branch Warriors will stay at home for another game and welcome the Alliance Aviators at 6:00 p.m. Given that both suffered a loss in their last game, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this match.
West Branch is probably headed into the matchup with a chip on their shoulder considering Marlington just ended the team's seven-game winning streak on Tuesday. They fell 3-1 to the Dukes.
West Branch took a 1-0 lead headed into the second set, but sadly they lost the next two. The final score came out to 28-30, 25-16, 25-23, 25-22.
Even though they lost, West Branch was lethal from the service line and finished the game with ten aces. This was only their first loss (out of four games) when they serve more than ten aces.
Meanwhile, Alliance was not able to break out of their rough patch on Monday as the team picked up their seventh straight defeat. They came up short against McKinley, falling 3-0.
After all that action, the final score was 25-22, 31-29, 25-18.
Despite the loss, Alliance had strong showings from Abigail Bailey, who had 24 digs, and Lilliana White, who had 17 digs. Bailey is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had ten or more in the last 15 games she's played dating back to last season.
West Branch's defeat ended a ten-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 11-4. As for Alliance, their loss dropped their record down to 3-12.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's game: West Branch has serving mastered this season, having averaged 6.5 aces per game. However, it's not like Alliance struggles in that department as they've been averaging 6.9. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Everything went West Branch's way against Alliance in their previous meeting two weeks ago as West Branch made off with a 3-0 victory. Does West Branch have another victory up their sleeve, or will Alliance turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
