Volleyball Preview: South Florence Bruins vs. Hartsville Red Foxes
South Florence is 0-7 against Hartsville since August of 2021 but things could change on Tuesday. The South Florence Bruins will head out to face off against the Hartsville Red Foxes at 7:00 p.m. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Last Thursday, everything went South Florence's way against Lower Richland as South Florence made off with a 3-0 victory.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: South Florence took every set by at least 11 points. The match finished with set scores of 25-9, 25-12, 25-14.
South Florence can attribute much of their success to Hailey McManus, who had nine kills, three aces, and 19 assists, and Lydia Danford, who had eight aces and seven kills. That's the most aces McManus has posted in she last five matches. The team also got some help courtesy of Payton Perry, who had four kills and three aces.
Meanwhile, Hartsville had already won six in a row and they went ahead and made it seven on Thursday. They blew past the Gators 3-0. While the Red Foxes didn't have the best season last year (they finished 7-11), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.
The final score came out to 25-18, 25-14, 25-16.
Among those leading the charge was Ava Wilcox, who had eight digs and three aces. That high mark didn't come from nowhere: she now served two or more in the last six games she's played dating back to last season. Emmakate Hudson was another key player, getting three digs and three aces.
She wasn't the only good server: Hartsville was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 16 aces. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 0 aces per game earlier this season, but in their last five games they've averaged 16.6.
South Florence is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a massive bump to their 4-5 record this season. As for Hartsville, their record is now 8-2.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Tuesday's matchup: South Florence has serving mastered this season, having averaged 14.6 aces per game. However, it's not like Hartsville struggles in that department as they've been averaging 16.8. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
South Florence suffered a grim 3-0 defeat to Hartsville in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. Can South Florence 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
