The Darlington Redbirds will challenge the Highland Cardinals at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Thursday, Darlington had just enough and edged Fennimore out 3-2. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Redbirds.
Darlington was actually outscored in aggregate across those five sets (105-104), but they still managed to win. The match finished with set scores of 16-25, 22-25, 25-20, 26-24, 15-11.
Jaycie Schwartz and Maddie Gratz were among the main playmakers for Darlington as the former had nine digs and the latter had 13 kills, nine digs, and a block. The dominant performance also gave Gratz a new career-high in aces.
Darlington was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 14 aces. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved they're ace total in three consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Highland came tearing into Thursday's game with four straight wins and they left with even more momentum. They blew past the Comets 3-0.
Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-19, 25-12, 25-20.
Highland's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Celia Oleson, who had three digs and two aces, and Sumaryn Halverson, who had two aces and ten assists. That high mark didn't come from nowhere: Halverson now posted ten or more in the last ten games she's played dating back to last season.
The win got Darlington back to even at 8-8. As for Highland, their victory was their 15th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 8-1.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Saturday's matchup: Darlington has serving mastered this season, having averaged 7.4 aces per game. However, it's not like Highland struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.2. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Darlington came out on top in a nail-biter against Highland when the teams last played back in September of 2023, sneaking past 2-1. Will Darlington repeat their success, or does Highland have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
