Rich is on a six-game streak of home wins, while St. Joseph is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Rebels will host the Jayhawks at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. St. Joseph took a loss in their last matchup and will be looking to turn the tables on Rich, who comes in off a win.
If Tintic wanted to avenge their loss from the last time they played Rich, they should've done a better job of containing Paige Smith. The Rebels walked away with a 3-1 victory over the Miners on Saturday thanks in part to Smith, who had 25 digs and two aces. She is on a roll when it comes to aces, as she's now served two or more in each of the last four games she's played.
The final score came out to 25-10, 24-26, 25-16, 25-14.
Tyla Pugmire
| 10/04/25 @ Tintic | 2 |
| 09/25/25 vs Grace | 1 |
| 09/13/25 vs Tintic | 2 |
Rich's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Tyla Pugmire, who had ten digs and two aces, and Laci McKinnon, who had 14 kills and ten digs. That's the most aces Pugmire has posted over her last three matches.
They weren't the only good servers: Rich was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 17 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least eight aces in four consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, after a string of five wins, St. Joseph's good fortune finally ran out on Tuesday. They came up short against Providence Hall, falling 3-0. Considering the last time the Jayhawks couldn't score was back in August, the team can't take the result too hard.
While St. Joseph was not able to make it on the board, they still kept things close, especially in the first set. The match finished with set scores of 25-23, 25-16, 25-18.
Rich's win bumped their record up to 12-6. As for St. Joseph, their loss dropped their record down to 13-8.
Rich couldn't quite get it done against St. Joseph when the teams last played back in September as they fell 3-1. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of the Jayhawks' Sophie Yates, who had 34 digs and three aces. Now that the Rebels know the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
