Volleyball Game Preview: Rich Township Raptors vs. Thornridge Falcons

The Rich Township Raptors are taking a road trip to challenge the Thornridge Falcons at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Rich Township will be strutting in after a win while Thornridge will be coming in after a defeat.

On Thursday, Rich Township narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Kankakee 2-1. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Raptors.

In the two sets Rich Township was on fire: they won each by at least 14 points. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-11, 19-25, 25-8.

McKinney Chandler

Serving Aces (Career)

05/08/25 @ Kankakee	2
05/06/25 vs Crete-Monee	1
04/29/25 vs Bloom	1
04/26/25 vs Highland Park	1

Rich Township's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Allen Moraga, who had 14 digs, and McKinney Chandler, who had three digs and two aces. Those two aces gave Chandler a new career-high.

Meanwhile, Thornridge came up short against Kankakee on Monday and fell 2-0.

The 2-0 score doesn't really reflect how close the match was: every set was decided by three points or less. The final score came out to 25-22, 25-23.

Rich Township will have to contain Orlando Gutierrez as he made an impact in Thornridge's last game. He had 17 assists.

Rich Township's win bumped their record up to 8-13. As for Thornridge, their loss was their third straight at home, which dropped their record down to 5-9.

Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Tuesday's game: Rich Township has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 5.8 aces per game. However, it's not like Thornridge struggles in that department as they've been averaging 5.4 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.

Rich Township beat Thornridge 2-0 in their previous meeting back in April. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Raptors since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.