Volleyball Game Preview: Belleville East Lancers vs. Althoff Catholic Crusaders

The Belleville East Lancers will challenge the Althoff Catholic Crusaders at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Belleville East sitting on five straight victories and Althoff Catholic on four.

Belleville East is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They had just enough and edged out Collinsville 2-1.

The match was a true back-and-forth as no team won consecutive sets, but in the end it was Belleville East who won the one that mattered. The final score came out to 25-14, 20-25, 25-16.

Meanwhile, Althoff Catholic earned a 2-0 win over Granite City on Tuesday.

Althoff Catholic's win came from a few key players Belleville East will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Rhett Neville, who had 27 assists and three digs. That's the most assists he has posted since back in April.

Althoff Catholic's victory bumped their record up to 27-7. As for Belleville East, they pushed their record up to 25-7 with the win, which was their eighth straight at home.

Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's game: Belleville East has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 5.6 aces per game. However, it's not like Althoff Catholic struggles in that department as they've been averaging 4 aces. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.

Belleville East was able to grind out a solid victory over Althoff Catholic in their previous matchup back in March, winning 2-0. Will the Lancers repeat their success, or do the Crusaders have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.