Volleyball Preview: Southwestern Rebels vs. South Ripley Raiders
Southwestern is 1-9 against South Ripley since August of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Saturday. The Southwestern Rebels are on the road again to play the South Ripley Raiders at 12:30 p.m. After both made easy work of their previous opponents, one won't be so lucky on Saturday.
Southwestern is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Thursday. They put the hurt on Austin with a sharp 3-0 win.
Southwestern never let Austin on the board, but things got pretty close in the third set. The match finished with set scores of 25-21, 25-16, 25-22.
Meanwhile, everything went South Ripley's way against Henryville last Friday as South Ripley made off with a 3-0 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Raiders.
Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-6, 25-11, 25-20.
South Ripley was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 16 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in six consecutive contests.
Southwestern has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a massive bump to their 20-11 record this season. As for South Ripley, their win bumped their record up to 15-13.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Saturday's matchup: Southwestern has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 8.3 aces per game. However, it's not like South Ripley struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.3. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Southwestern might still be hurting after the 3-0 loss they got from South Ripley when the teams last played on October 3rd. Can Southwestern avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
