Volleyball Preview: Northwest Christian Crusaders vs. Tanque Verde Hawks
The Northwest Christian Crusaders will face off against the Tanque Verde Hawks at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Northwest Christian will be looking to keep their eight-game home win streak alive.
Last Wednesday, everything went Northwest Christian's way against San Tan Foothills as Northwest Christian made off with a 3-0 victory.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Northwest Christian took every set by at least 13 points. The final score came out to 25-9, 25-5, 25-12.
Northwest Christian had a senior duo take command as Ryleigh Desch had seven aces and three digs and Maggie Whittemore had seven digs and four aces. The dominant performance gave Desch a new career-high in aces.
They weren't the only good server: Northwest Christian was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 19 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least six aces in 16 consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Tanque Verde made easy work of Ganado on Tuesday and carried off a 3-0 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Hawks.
Tanque Verde not only won, but also showed off some consistency: they kept Ganado between 14 and 17 points across their sets. The match finished with set scores of 25-14, 25-17, 25-15.
Tanque Verde relied on the efforts of Alexia Adams, who had 18 digs and six aces, and Elise Mansour, who had ten digs and five aces. Adams has been hot recently, having posted two or more aces the last four times she's played.
Northwest Christian has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 14 of their last 15 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 19-6 record this season. As for Tanque Verde, their victory bumped their record up to 18-12.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Saturday's game: Northwest Christian has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 10.6 aces per game. However, it's not like Tanque Verde struggles in that department as they've been averaging 12.8. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Northwest Christian took their win against Tanque Verde in their previous meeting back in November of 2022 by a conclusive 3-0. Does Northwest Christian have another victory up their sleeve, or will Tanque Verde turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
