The Downingtown East Cougars will be staying on the road on Friday to face off against the Lower Merion Aces at 5:15 p.m. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Downingtown East is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Pennsylvania's top teams: Unionville, who was ranked sixth in their home state at the time (Downingtown East was ranked 23rd). Downingtown East took a 3-1 hit to the loss column at the hands of Unionville on Monday. The Cougars' defeat signaled the end of their nine-game winning streak.
The final score came out to 27-25, 23-25, 25-16, 25-19.
Downingtown East might have lost, but man, Hailey Long was a machine: she had 31 digs and three aces. Long is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had four or more in the last six games she's played dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Jamie Lizardo, who had 13 digs.
Even though they lost, Downingtown East 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 six consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Lower Merion was not able to break out of their rough patch on Wednesday as the team picked up their fourth straight loss. They fell just short of Marple Newtown by a score of 3-2.
In an exciting match in which no team claimed back-to-back wins, Lower Merion sadly wound up on the wrong side. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-23, 13-25, 25-17, 26-28, 15-12.
Having lost for the first time this season, Downingtown East fell to 9-1-1. As for Lower Merion, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-6.
Downingtown East was able to grind out a solid win over Lower Merion when the teams last played back in September of 2023, winning 3-1. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Lower Merion's Zoe Brown, who had 31 digs. Now that she won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Downingtown East to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
