Volleyball Preview: Utica Redskins vs. Lakewood Lancers
The Utica Redskins have the luxury of staying home for another game and will welcome the Lakewood Lancers at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Last Tuesday, Utica didn't have quite enough to beat Johnstown-Monroe and fell 3-2. The loss continues a trend for the Redskins in their matchups with the Johnnies: they've now lost seven in a row.
Utica might've come up short, but they didn't make it easy on Johnstown-Monroe: every set was decided by two points or less. The match finished with set scores of 25-23, 25-23, 22-25, 23-25, 16-14.
Despite the defeat, Utica had strong showings from Callie Baker, who had 16 digs and two aces, and Madison Yates, who had 16 digs. That's the most aces Baker has posted in her last eight contests.
Even though they lost, Utica 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 seven aces in four consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Lakewood didn't have quite enough to beat Heath on Tuesday and fell 3-2.
In an exciting match in which no team claimed back-to-back wins, Lakewood sadly wound up on the wrong side. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-12, 19-25, 25-20, 21-25, 15-11.
Utica's loss dropped their record down to 8-8. As for Lakewood, they have been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-10 record this season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's game: Utica has really dialed in their serving game this season, having averaged 9.4 aces per game. However, it's not like Lakewood struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.8. 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.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
