Volleyball Preview: St. Henry Crusaders vs. Ryle Raiders
On Tuesday St. Henry will have to hit the road after four straight games at home. After both having extra time off, they and the Ryle Raiders will dust off their jerseys to square off against one another at 7:00 p.m. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
St. Henry is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another highly-ranked state team: Ursuline Academy, who was ranked sixth at the time (St. Henry was ranked fourth). St. Henry fell just short of Ursuline Academy by a score of 3-2 on Tuesday. The Crusaders' loss signaled the end of their three-game winning streak.
St. Henry actually scored more points across those five sets (110-107), but sadly they still had to settle for second. The match finished with set scores of 16-25, 25-20, 25-22, 21-25, 20-18.
Even though they lost, St. Henry was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 11 aces. That's the most aces they've posted since back in September.
Meanwhile, Ryle came up short against Notre Dame Academy on Wednesday, falling 3-0. The Raiders haven't had much luck with the Pandas recently, as the team's come up short the last four times they've met.
The final score came out to 25-20, 25-17, 25-14.
St. Henry's defeat ended a 17-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 27-4. As for Ryle, their loss dropped their record down to 20-5.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Tuesday's contest: St. Henry has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 7.1 aces per game. However, it's not like Ryle struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Everything went St. Henry's way against Ryle in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, as St. Henry made off with a 3-0 win. Does St. Henry have another victory up their sleeve, or will Ryle turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
