The Upper Lake Cougars will face off against the Middletown Mustangs at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
On Thursday, Upper Lake made easy work of Lower Lake and carried off a 3-0 victory.
The match finished with set scores of 25-13, 25-10, 25-17.
Meanwhile, Middletown was able to grind out a solid win over St. Helena on Thursday, taking the game 3-1. The Mustangs haven't had any issues with the Saints recently, as the game was their third consecutive victory against them.
Middletown 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 24-26, 25-18, 25-19, 25-23.
Upper Lake better focus on containing Jordyn Harbison and Harley Holley as the pair were huge in Middletown's win. Harbison had 16 digs, while Holley had 11 kills, seven digs, five blocks, and five aces. Those five aces gave Holley a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Samantha Maccario, who had 11 digs.
Middletown was lethal from the service line and finished the match with 11 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least eight aces in three consecutive matches.
Upper Lake now has a winning record of 9-8. As for Middletown, their win bumped their record up to 8-22.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Tuesday's contest: Upper Lake hasn't let much over the net this season, having averaged 11.8 blocks per game. It's a different story for Middletown, though, as they've been averaging only 1.7 blocks. Given Upper Lake's sizable advantage in that area, the Mustangs will need to find a way to close that gap. Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.
