After both having extra time off, the Grant Pacers and the Merced Bears will shake off the cobwebs and hit the court against one another at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Grant will be looking to extend their current nine-game winning streak.
Grant proved they can win big on Tuesday (they won by three) and on Thursday they proved they can win the close ones too. They had just enough and edged out Kennedy 3-2. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Pacers have posted against the Cougars since March 22, 2022.
Grant wouldn't go down easily and took Kennedy into a fifth set where they got it done with a two-point win. The match finished with set scores of 27-25, 25-20, 21-25, 24-26, 15-13.
Eason Lor and Taejon Jackson were among the main playmakers for Grant as the former had five digs and three aces and the latter had 13 digs and three assists. That's the most aces Lor has posted since back in March.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Merced, who bounced back after a loss on the road two weeks ago. They put the hurt on Los Banos with a sharp 3-0 win two weeks ago.
The 3-0 score doesn't show just how dominant Merced was: they took every set by at least 12 points. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-6, 25-9, 25-13.
Merced's win came from a few key players Grant will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Isaak Bankhead, who had 15 assists. He has been hot recently, having posted 14 or more assists the last three times he's played.
Merced couldn't miss and finished the game having scored on 42.9% of their attack attempts. That's the best hitting percentage they've posted all season.
Grant's victory was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 15-5. As for Merced, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matchups. That's provided a massive bump to their 18-12 record this season.
