Volleyball Preview: Lovejoy Leopards vs. Walnut Grove Wildcats
The Lovejoy Leopards will face off against the Walnut Grove Wildcats at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Lovejoy comes in on five and Walnut Grove on four.
Last Tuesday, Lovejoy got the win against Denison by a conclusive 3-0.
The 3-0 score doesn't show just how dominant Lovejoy was: they took every set by at least 14 points. The match finished with set scores of 25-4, 25-11, 25-3.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Lovejoy to victory, but perhaps none more so than Brooke Starr, who had three aces and 13 assists. That's the most aces Starr has posted since back in August.
Lovejoy couldn't miss and finished the game having scored on 61.5% of their attack attempts. That's a new trend for them: their average hitting percentage was 23.3% earlier this season, but in their last five matchups they've averaged 37.7%.
Meanwhile, Walnut Grove earned a 3-1 victory over Greenville on Tuesday.
Walnut Grove was generally in control, but really had to dig deep in the second set to get the win. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-12, 24-26, 25-20, 25-19.
Walnut Grove relied on the efforts of Lauren Aguilar, who had 26 digs and three aces, and J'Leigh Larra, who had ten digs and 26 assists. Aguilar is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had 13 or more in the last four games she's played dating back to last season.
Lovejoy is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last ten matches, which provided a nice bump to their 21-7 record this season. As for Walnut Grove, they pushed their record up to 20-11 with that win, which was their third straight on the road.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's contest: Lovejoy has serving mastered this season, having averaged 5.2 aces per game. However, it's not like Walnut Grove struggles in that department as they've been averaging 4.6. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out. Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
