The Shadow Ridge Mustangs will face off against the Centennial Bulldogs at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Shadow Ridge is coming into the contest hot, having won their last 12 games.
Shadow Ridge is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Nevada's top teams: Green Valley, who was ranked 20th at the time (Shadow Ridge was ranked second). The Mustangs were the clear victors by a 3-0 margin over the Gators on Thursday.
Shadow Ridge's got stronger as the match went on, holding Green Valley to fewer and fewer points set over set. The final score came out to 25-22, 25-20, 25-17.
Centennial not only won on Friday, but they posted their biggest win since March 11th. Everything went their way against Cheyenne as they made off with a 3-0 victory. The Bulldogs haven't had any issues with the Desert Shields recently, as the game was their fifth consecutive win against them.
Centennial never let Cheyenne on the board, but things got pretty close in the first set. The match finished with set scores of 25-22, 25-13, 25-19.
Shadow Ridge better focus on containing Ty Ahlstrom and Josh Wagner as the pair were huge in Centennial's win. Ahlstrom had 12 digs, while Wagner had five digs and two aces. That's the most digs Ahlstrom has posted over his last 12 matches. Mau Tuiaana also deserves some recognition as he posted his first assist of the season.
Centennial was lethal from the service line and finished the game with ten aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in 21 consecutive games.
Shadow Ridge's victory was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 20-3. As for Centennial, their win bumped their record up to 22-8.
Shadow Ridge was able to grind out a solid victory over Centennial in their previous matchup back in March, winning 3-1. Will the Mustangs repeat their success, or do the Bulldogs have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
