The Kimberly Papermakers will head out to face off against the Oshkosh West Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Kimberly is headed into the contest having just posted their biggest win since October 19, 2023 on Tuesday. Everything went their way against Appleton West as Kimberly made off with a 3-0 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Papermakers.
Not only was the match a shutout, it was a big one: Kimberly took every set by at least nine points. The final score came out to 25-9, 25-16, 25-11.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Kimberly to victory, but perhaps none more so than Ava Van Camp, who had 11 digs and four aces. Van Camp is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had 11 or more in the last three games she's played dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Brie Lamers, who had 12 digs and four aces.
She wasn't the only good server: Kimberly was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 15 aces. That's the most aces they've posted since back in October of 2023.
Meanwhile, Oshkosh West entered their tilt with Appleton North on Tuesday with seven consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with eight. They won by a set and slipped past the Lightning 3-2.
Oshkosh West took Appleton North into a fifth set where they got it done with a three-point win. After all that action, the final score was 21-25, 25-17, 25-19, 21-25, 15-12.
Oshkosh West's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Emma Polishinski, who had 13 digs and three aces. MaKaelyn Clark was another key player, getting 13 digs and two aces.
Kimberly has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 10-4 record this season. As for Oshkosh West, their win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 19-4.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's match: Kimberly has serving mastered this season, having averaged 6.6 aces per game. However, it's not like Oshkosh West struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.9. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Kimberly came up short against Oshkosh West when the teams last played back in September of 2023, falling 3-1. Can Kimberly avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
