Volleyball Preview: Wellington Dukes vs. Brookside Cardinals
The Wellington Dukes will challenge the Brookside Cardinals at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Tuesday, Wellington made easy work of Black River and carried off a 3-0 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Dukes.
One reason for the win was Wellington's dynamic defense, which allowed fewer and fewer points in every set they played. The match finished with set scores of 25-23, 25-17, 25-16.
Lauren Vannatter and Courtney Krosse were among the main playmakers for Wellington as the former had four digs and 19 assists and the latter had five digs and two aces.
She wasn't the only good server: Wellington 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 five aces in 12 consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Brookside was able to grind out a solid victory over Oberlin on Tuesday, taking the game 3-1.
Brookside had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first set, they turned around to win the next three. The final score came out to 15-25, 25-15, 25-14, 25-17.
Mari Banjoff had an outrageously good game as she had 16 digs and four aces. She is also on a roll when it comes to assists, as she's now posted 13 or more in the last seven games she's played dating back to last season.
Wellington has been performing well recently as they've won eight of their last ten games, which provided a massive bump to their 10-7 record this season. As for Brookside, they now have a winning record of 10-9.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's matchup: Wellington has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 9.5 aces per game. However, it's not like Brookside struggles in that department as they've been averaging 11.1. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Wellington skirted past Brookside 3-2 in their previous matchup back in September. The rematch might be a little tougher for Wellington since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
