The Milpitas Trojans will square off against the Sequoia Ravens at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Milpitas sitting on three straight wins and Sequoia on six.
Milpitas is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They had just enough and edged out Cupertino 3-2.
Milpitas had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first two sets, they turned around to win the next three. The final score came out to 18-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-20, 15-12.
Ashley Chen and Ellie Chu were among the main playmakers for Milpitas as the former had 27 assists and 16 digs and the latter had 13 digs and two assists. That's the most assists Chu has posted since back in September. Another player making a difference was Ahnnayah Jhazmyn Buenaflor, who had 13 digs and one assist.
Meanwhile, Sequoia hadn't done well against Salinas recently (they were 0-4 in their previous four matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Tuesday. The Ravens were the clear victors by a 3-0 margin over the Cowboys.
Sequoia didn't let Salinas take a single set, but it sure wasn't easy: every set was decided by three points or less. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-23, 25-23, 25-23.
Milpitas better focus on containing Joslin Fiel and Karina Kumar as the pair were huge in Sequoia's win. Fiel had 15 digs and four assists, while Kumar had 13 digs.
Sequoia's victory bumped their record up to 22-14. As for Milpitas, their win bumped their record up to 20-9.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's match: Milpitas hasn't let much over the net this season, having averaged 4.3 blocks per game. It's a different story for Sequoia, though, as they've been averaging only 0.6 blocks. Given Milpitas' sizable advantage in that area, the Ravens will need to find a way to close that gap. Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other volleyball content.
