The Taft Wildcats will challenge the Immanuel Christian Crusaders at 3:00 p.m. on Friday. Taft is no doubt hoping to put an end to a five-game streak of away losses dating back to last season.
Taft will head out to face Immanuel Christian after giving up their first home loss of the season on Tuesday. Taft lost 3-0 to Shafter.
Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-17, 25-22, 25-11.
The losing side was boosted by Haley Jimenez, who had four digs and three aces. She is also on a roll when it comes to assists, as she's now posted eight or more in the last three games she's played.
Meanwhile, Immanuel Christian earned a 3-1 win over Owens Valley on Wednesday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Crusaders.
In the three sets Immanuel Christian was on fire: they won each by at least 13 points. After all that action, the final score was 25-12, 24-26, 25-2, 25-7.
Miriam Maguina and Olivia Long were among the main playmakers for Immanuel Christian as the former had four aces and the latter had five aces. The dominant performance gave Maguina a new career-high in aces.
Immanuel Christian couldn't miss and finished the game having scored on 58.3% of their attack attempts. That's a new trend for them: their average hitting percentage was 0% earlier this season, but in their last five matches they've averaged 40.1%.
Taft's loss dropped their record down to 6-8-1. As for Immanuel Christian, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 6-7-1 record this season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's matchup: Taft has serving mastered this season, having averaged 7.7 aces per game. However, it's not like Immanuel Christian struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.5. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Taft was able to grind out a solid victory over Immanuel Christian in their previous matchup back in September of 2023, winning 2-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Taft since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
