Taft has gone 9-1 against Shafter recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Thursday. The Taft Wildcats will face off against the Shafter Generals at 6:15 p.m. Taft is no doubt hoping to put an end to a seven-game streak of away losses dating back to last season.
Having struggled with three defeats in a row, Taft finally turned things around against Kennedy on Tuesday. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past the Thunderbirds 3-2.
Taft took Kennedy into a fifth set where they got it done with a four-point win. The match finished with set scores of 25-23, 25-15, 19-25, 21-25, 15-11.
Haley Jimenez was nothing short of spectacular: she had 14 digs and two aces.
She wasn't the only good server: Taft 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 five aces in nine consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Shafter had already won five in a row and they went ahead and made it six on Tuesday. They put the hurt on the Titans with a sharp 3-0 win.
Taft's record now sits at 11-12-4. As for Shafter, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 16 of their last 18 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 22-3-1 record this season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday's matchup: Taft has really dialed in their serving this season, having averaged 8.1 aces per game. However, it's not like Shafter struggles in that department as they've been averaging 4.7. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Taft suffered a grim 3-0 defeat to Shafter in their previous matchup back in September. Can Taft 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
