After both having extra time off, the Woodland Wolves and the Union Mine Diamondbacks will shake off the cobwebs and hit the court against one another at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Woodland sitting on four straight wins and Union Mine on seven.
Last Tuesday, Woodland got the win against Dixon by a conclusive 3-0.
The 3-0 score doesn't show just how dominant Woodland was: they took every set by at least 14 points. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-11, 25-9, 25-9.
Woodland's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Elena Ganyo, who had three digs and three aces, and Chloe Nelson, who had three digs and two aces.
They weren't the only good servers: Woodland was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 18 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in seven consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Union Mine hadn't done well against El Dorado recently (they were 1-8 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Tuesday. The Diamondbacks came out on top in a nail-biter against the Cougars, sneaking past 3-2. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Diamondbacks have posted since August 28th.
If you add up the scores from across all five sets (110-105) Union Mine actually scored fewer points, but in the end it didn't matter. The match finished with set scores of 25-23, 27-25, 17-25, 21-25, 15-12.
Woodland's record is now 23-12. As for Union Mine, their record now sits at 20-4.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Tuesday's contest: Woodland has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 9.9 aces per game. However, it's not like Union Mine struggles in that department as they've been averaging an even more impressive 11.9 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Woodland beat Union Mine 2-0 in their previous matchup back in September of 2017. Will the Wolves repeat their success, or do the Diamondbacks have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
