The Haverford Fords will square off against the Springfield Cougars at 4:45 p.m. on Monday.
For some reason, the away team has come away with the win the last six times Haverford and Strath Haven have met, but the home crowd finally got their W on Thursday. The Fords fell just short of the Panthers by a score of 3-2. While the Fords didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Panthers 25-11 in the first set.
Haverford actually scored more points across those five sets (105-100), but sadly they still had to settle for second. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 11-25, 25-18, 27-25, 22-25, 15-12.
Meanwhile, Springfield hadn't done well against Lower Merion recently (they were 0-9 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Thursday. The Cougars were the clear victors by a 3-0 margin over the Aces. While the Cougars didn't have the best season last year (they finished 6-9), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.
While Springfield won a shutout, things came down to the wire in the first set they played. The final score came out to 25-23, 25-17, 25-19.
Haverford's loss was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 2-1 and their overall record down to 4-3. As for Springfield, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 6-3 record this season.
Everything went Haverford's way against Springfield when the teams last played back in October of 2023, as Haverford made off with a 3-0 win. Will the Fords repeat their success, or do the Cougars have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
