The St. John's Cadets's homestand will continue as they prepare to take on the Archbishop Spalding Cavaliers at 5:00 p.m. on Friday.
St. John's is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another highly-ranked state team: Bishop O'Connell, who was ranked first at the time (St. John's was ranked fifth). St. John's fell 3-1 to Bishop O'Connell on Wednesday. The loss continues a trend for the Cadets in their matchups with the Knights: they've now lost seven in a row.
While St. John's ultimately came up short, they really made Bishop O'Connell work, particularly in the fourth set. The match finished with set scores of 25-19, 25-20, 22-25, 26-24.
Despite the defeat, St. John's had strong showings from Erin Carmody, who had seven digs and three aces, and Racquel Frazier, who had 11 kills and 11 digs. Frazier is on a roll when it comes to kills, as she's now had seven or more in the last 19 games she's played dating back to last season.
Even though they lost, St. John's kept the net locked down and finished the game with 17 blocks. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now had at least six blocks in five consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Spalding waltzed into their game on Wednesday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They put the hurt on Connelly School of the Holy Child with a sharp 3-0 victory.
Archbishop Spalding's not only won, but also showed off some consistency: keeping Connelly School of the Holy Child between 15 and 17 points across their sets. The final score came out to 25-17, 25-15, 25-17.
Archbishop Spalding's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Milla Danek, who had three digs, three aces, and a block, and Lilly Patrick, who had 11 digs.
St. John's loss dropped their record down to 16-3. As for Archbishop Spalding, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 6-5 record this season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Friday's matchup: St. John's hasn't let much over the net this season, having averaged 8.2 blocks per game. However, it's not like Archbishop Spalding struggles in that department as they've been averaging 4.8. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Everything went St. John's way against Archbishop Spalding when the teams last played back in August of 2023, as St. John's made off with a 3-0 win. Does St. John's have another victory up their sleeve, or will Archbishop Spalding turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
