Mourning hasn't had much luck against Coral Reef recently, but that could start to change on Wednesday. The Mourning Sharks will take on the Coral Reef Barracudas at 7:15 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Mourning took a loss when they played away from home on Tuesday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Thursday. They walked away with a 3-1 victory over Braddock.
The final score came out to 25-17, 22-25, 25-14, 25-19.
Sadie Dunham and Mila Besharat were among the main playmakers for Mourning as the former had nine digs and three aces and the latter had 23 digs. That's the most aces Dunham has posted since back in August. Another player making a difference was Hannah Gutierrez, who had 12 digs.
Mourning was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 13 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least five aces in 18 consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Coral Reef sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 2-1 win over Innovation on Saturday.
Coral Reef was staring down a 1-0 deficit headed into the second set, but they rallied to take the next three for the win. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 22-25, 25-13, 15-11.
Among those leading the charge was Emily Gomez, who had 26 digs.
Mourning pushed their record up to 10-1 with that victory, which was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season. As for Coral Reef, their record is now 10-1.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Wednesday's matchup: Mourning has serving mastered this season, having averaged 14.8 aces per game. However, it's not like Coral Reef struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.5. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Mourning came up short against Coral Reef when the teams last played back in October of 2019, falling 2-0. Can Mourning 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
