Volleyball Preview: South Dearborn Knights vs. Greensburg Pirates
South Dearborn hasn't had much luck against Greensburg recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. After both having extra time off, both will dust off their jerseys to face off against one another at 6:00 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Thursday, South Dearborn made easy work of Franklin County and carried off a 3-0 victory.
South Dearborn never let Franklin County on the board, but things got pretty close in the third set. The match finished with set scores of 25-16, 25-14, 25-22.
South Dearborn found their leader in underclassman Brynn Hamlett, who had five digs and 16 assists.
Meanwhile, Greensburg and East Central met for a duel on Thursday where Greensburg came out on top. Greensburg sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 win over East Central.
Greensburg had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first two sets, they turned around to win the next three. The final score came out to 20-25, 22-25, 25-13, 25-20, 15-12.
Greensburg's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Carmin Ripperger, who had 14 digs and three aces, and Kirkley Lowe, who had 12 digs. That's the most aces Ripperger has posted since back in September.
Greensburg was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 12 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least 12 aces in three consecutive games.
South Dearborn's victory bumped their record up to 15-13. As for Greensburg, they are on a roll lately: they've won 14 of their last 16 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 22-6 record this season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's matchup: South Dearborn has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 10.1 aces per game. However, it's not like Greensburg struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
South Dearborn came up short against Greensburg in their previous meeting back in September, falling 2-0. Can South Dearborn avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
