Volleyball Preview: La Porte Slicers vs. Lake Central Indians
La Porte has gone 8-2 against Lake Central recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Thursday. The La Porte Slicers will be playing in front of their home fans against the Lake Central Indians at 5:00 p.m. Given that both suffered a loss in their last game, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this matchup.
La Porte is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering Valparaiso just ended the team's four-game winning streak on Tuesday. They fell 3-1 to the Vikings. While the Slicers didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Vikings 25-17 in the first set.
La Porte started the match hot and won the first set, but they struggled down the stretch and lost the last three. The match finished with set scores of 17-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-23.
Despite their loss, La Porte saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Emma Hull, who had 17 digs, was perhaps the best of all. Hull is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had 13 or more in the last three games she's played dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Mia Mendoza, who had six digs and three aces.
She wasn't the only good server: La Porte 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 11 consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Lake Central didn't have quite enough to beat Angola on Saturday and fell 3-2. The Indians have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Lake Central took a 2-1 lead headed into the fourth set, but sadly they lost the next two. The final score came out to 17-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-21, 15-6.
La Porte's defeat dropped their record down to 16-13. As for Lake Central, their loss dropped their record down to 18-10.
La Porte came up short against Lake Central when the teams last played back in September, falling 3-1. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Lake Central's Lauren Smith, who had 14 digs and 38 assists. Now that La Porte knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
