Volleyball Preview: Lakeland Lakers vs. NorthWood Panthers
After two games on the road, Lakeland is heading back home. They will take on the NorthWood Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Lakeland will be strutting in after a win while NorthWood will be coming in after a loss.
On Thursday, Lakeland sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 victory over Prairie Heights.
Lakeland had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first two sets, they turned around to win the next three. The match finished with set scores of 24-26, 20-25, 25-20, 25-23, 16-14.
Lakeland was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 11 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least seven aces in seven consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, it was a proper cat-fight when NorthWood took on Warsaw on Thursday. NorthWood lost 3-0 to Warsaw. While getting shut out isn't ideal, the Panthers haven't been shut out since back in August.
NorthWood was not held off the scoreboard, but that almost wasn't the case: they kept the second set very close. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-17, 25-22, 25-21.
Lakeland is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 17-7 record this season. As for NorthWood, their defeat dropped their record down to 17-5.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Monday's matchup: Lakeland has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 7.9 aces per game. However, it's not like NorthWood struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.1. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Lakeland might still be hurting after the 3-0 loss they got from NorthWood in their previous meeting back in October of 2023. Will Lakeland have more luck at home instead of on the road? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other volleyball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
