The Christian Patriots will challenge the San Ysidro Cougars at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
Christian is probably headed into the matchup with a chip on their shoulder considering Sweetwater just ended the team's four-game winning streak on Thursday. They came up short against the Red Devils, falling 3-0. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest defeat the Patriots have suffered since February 24th.
While Christian was not able to make it on the board, they still kept things close, especially in the first set. The final score came out to 25-22, 25-11, 25-21.
Despite the loss, Christian saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Trae Pheasant had eight digs and seven assists.
San Ysidro extended their winning streak to six games thanks to a huge performance from Ryan Nance. San Ysidro came out on top against Hilltop by a score of 3-1 on Thursday which was due in part to Nance, who had 34 digs and three assists. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in assists.
Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-16, 25-22, 25-27, 25-18.
Christian better focus on containing Kenneth Rocha and Sergio Mena as the pair were huge in San Ysidro's win. Rocha had 11 digs, while Mena had nine kills and six blocks. Mena has been hot recently, having posted six or more kills the last three times he's played.
San Ysidro was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 11 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least seven aces in three consecutive games.
San Ysidro pushed their record up to 8-4 with the win, which was their third straight at home. As for Christian, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-6.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Tuesday's contest: Christian has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 6.3 aces per game. However, it's not like San Ysidro struggles in that department as they've been averaging 5.2 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out. Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other volleyball content.
