Volleyball Game Preview: Appleton North Lightning vs. Hortonville Polar Bears

The Appleton North Lightning will face off against the Hortonville Polar Bears at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Appleton North has five straight wins, Hortonville has six straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

Appleton North is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Wisconsin's top teams: Kimberly, who was ranked 11th at the time (Appleton North was ranked fourth). The Lightning had just enough and edged out the Papermakers 2-1.

Appleton North relied on the efforts of LANDON KUE, who had 11 digs and two aces, and SAOLAI THAO, who had eight assists and three digs. That's the most aces KUE has posted over his last 15 matches.

Meanwhile, Hortonville came up short against Neenah on Monday and fell 3-1.

Hortonville started the match hot and won the first set, but they struggled down the stretch and lost the last three. The match finished with set scores of 24-26, 25-16, 25-6, 25-13.

Hortonville's loss dropped their record down to 2-15. As for Appleton North, their victory bumped their record up to 30-7.

Everything went Appleton North's way against Hortonville in their previous meeting back in September, as Appleton North made off with a 3-0 win. Will the Lightning repeat their success, or do the Polar Bears have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.